WaterBlaze
by Once An Oddity
Summary: In the world of Pokemon, dark somber clouds pivot about in the sky. A flicker of lightning brights the sky, causing thunder to rebound amongst the clouds. In the mist of it all, in the eye of the storm, a light shines brightly onto a young Charmander; sleeping aside a tree, who—is for now—unaware of the destiny that has been bestowed upon him.
1. Epitaph

**WaterBlaze**

**Arc I: An Unlikely Beginning  
****Chapter '0'~ Epitaph**

The sky would be the first thing one would notice on a day like this one. It was blue, like almost any other day, but today, it was filled with many giant tall clouds, seemly reaching towards the heavens while, at the same time, intensifying the rays of the sun. With of course, the occasional bird Pokémon gliding through the air.

Back on the ground, some more or less tall trees were bordering nearby downs. A small Caterpie was doing its best inching away toward the sanctuary of the trees to escape the exposure that the jade grassland gave him to the flying birds. Even if it was natural, some nearby bug Pokémon winced when a Swellow had swooped down to have a taste of the poor worm.

Not too far away, perhaps even near the middle of the downs, a small but very noticeable hill had formed. On this hill, one could get a beautiful view of the sky and its components. In fact, this is what a Charmeleon was doing at this very moment. It was resting again a tree, which could easily be called the tallest in this current area that had grown a good distance from the rest. The Charmeleon was slowly caressing a good-sized Pokémon egg that was in her lap and humming a smoothing melody. This Pokémon was in fact a female, which showed the reason behind the motherly nature she held for the egg.

"_You're going to be big little one,"_ She thought. "_I can just feel it. You're going to do great things, see great Pokémon; you're going to be a great Pokémon. I can't wait to see the type of Pokémon you'll become. I hope you'll always know that whatever you'll do, wherever you'll go, you'll have my love and my blessing_

"_Silly me,"_ A slight giggle escaped her maw._ "it still hasn't hatched from its egg and I'm already talking about it leaving me."_ She paused for a moment, sighing._ "Well, I guess this'll be the life of a Mother. Always in worry…"_ Her thoughts became more and more disoriented as she fell deeper and deeper into the unconsciousness of blissful sleep. The slowly setting sun shined brightly against her person as she continued to subconsciously caress her egg even in the mists of her deep sleep.

* * *

**Writer's Notes (Please Read):**

_Hello There. I'm guessing you were interested in my fanfiction, otherwise, of course, you wouldn't be reading it now. Nevertheless, through excessive sleep-planning, sleep-writing, and sleep altogether, I had come up with this a few years ago. Sleep-work can be extremely tiring. I had a good nap afterward though, so I'm good._

_I want to tell you, the reader, that I hope you enjoy this adventure I managed to pull out of my head. I have an outline of it all written out already, and I have a good solid idea where I'm going to take everything, so you don't have to worry about a random adventure fic with an author that has no idea where to go.  
_

_What you might experience, though, is an author that occasionally doesn't know how to take things where they're supposed to go (otherwise known as writer's block). I want to apologize in advance for any infrequent updates I'll have because of it—and because of school, which i still am in._

_Lastly, I want to apologize for how short this 'Prologue' was. Many people say that a 'Prologue' is unnecessary in a story, and that it shows bad writing. I neither agree nor disagree, and I mostly wrote this to give you, the reader, a look at the kind of writing style you should expect from me. Albeit, a majority of the rest of the story will be written in first person._

_That is all I wish to say, and thank you to everyone who took the time to read this. :)_

**_Your Author,_**

**_~Odd_**

**_P.S. Until further notice, the chapters you will see ahead are being rewritten and re-edited to better reflect the author's growth in writing skills._**


	2. Meeting

**Arc 1:****An Unlikely Beginning**

**Chapter 1~ Meeting**

* * *

**_...Several years later from the previous chapter…_**

* * *

Alright, so this seems like a great place to begin. With it being the beginning and stuff.

I was asleep in what some people would call a beautiful meadow. Descending from some tall trees, the meadow turned into a relatively flat plateau with the occasional small hill and met a well-sized river, which, further down, flowed into a small pond. The trees that partly surrounded the meadow mostly dwelled in the shadows, despite the bright sun that lit up the sky.

At first glance, one would assume that this area was completely remote- void of any other Pokemon habitat and life. Well, you wouldn't believe how stupid one could be. There is an area further down the meadow, a well set distance away from me, where a bunch of grass pansies and a good majority of those annoying, optimistic, and most of all excessively cheery Pokemon live. Near the river, there are obviously water-type Pokemon but there were also some normal-types; and, in the forest, you had your typical forest Pokemon habitat: Normal-types, rodent Pokemon, bug-types, flying-types. Stereotypical, right?

Now, enough about everyone else and more about me.

You see, pretty much all of those different Pokemon I listed were completely, with no doubt, scared to death of me—either that or they straight out hate me. That's most likely the reason why no one lives near my vicinity. But, why do they hate me you might ask? Well, maybe it's because I _can _be a little rough…but hey, I swear it's only around the edges!

Eh, who am I kidding? You really wanna know why? It's because I'm a complete jerk. That's right! Even those Zigzagoon by the river call me one. I don't really get that angry—much; the one I came across the other day an attest to that, poor thing won't have zigzag-y fur for a long good while.

But, back to me being asleep in my meadow. You see, normally those Pidgey—who were chirping their heads off like it was mating season—would have wakened me up. Trust me; you don't want to be around when mating season starts. You see—hold on, I'm about to get off topic, aren't I? That's right; I was sleeping there, being an idiot—which I do a lot by the way. Really, if they ever make it a sport, I'd be unbeatable.

I was lying on the grass, snoring away like never before with foamy saliva trekking down the side of my mouth, and unknowingly cuddling a poor Azurill that had dared to come to close to my perimeter; I was beautiful. Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but sleeping has its faults. When you're asleep, you are completely unaware of your surroundings and extremely vulnerable to anything that tries to harm you- well, unless you know the move Snore. But I don't know Snore, so the whole being vulnerable was case that I was in.

I was completely unaware of the approaching danger that was, well, approaching me. Blah… that sounded dumb…

As I was lying there, a Squirtle had run up to me. Running up to me was a problem in itself, but that wasn't the only thing he did. Oh no. You know what he did? He _shook _me! He shook me like there was no tomorrow! I was slowly coming to; his consistent prodding was unfortunately helping.

"Hey, are you alright?" The Squirtle called. Thinking back, I couldn't blame him. If I walked by some Sentret or something that was frothing, I'd do one of three things: leave it alone, kill it, or- scratch that, only two things- I counted wrong.

"Hey, wake up!" He cried out again. His voice sounded kinda strange to me. Sorta stuffy nose-ish "Come on, wake up! Are you okay?"

My eyes were slowly cracking open and some of the crusty sleep around my eye fell away. I swear he flinched a bit when he saw my glare that I shot at him. My head was still really cloudy, and I was getting that weak feeling you have sometimes when you just wake up; like your body is made of rocks. Of course, that didn't stop me from balling my fists in anger.

So yeah, I was waking up slowly. Cranky and stuff. And honestly, I do some pretty rash and dumb things when I'm cranky. Like slugging things out of aggravation. But hey, I sure as Mew didn't care! So what did I do? I slugged him in the face anyway. Sure, go ahead; call me an jerk. You know everyone else does.

"What was that for?" The Squirtle screeched. I lazily pushed myself up. Confronting a angry water type while lying on my back was not something I wanted to do anytime soon. Of course, as soon as it was given that chance, that makeshift teddy bear that I was cuddling escaped into the forest to who knows where.

"What do you mean what was that for? You woke me up! Rule number one of this stupid forest place: 'You wake me up, I beat you up'. You're lucky I'm going easy on you, Dunce-shell." I wiped off my foamy saliva and looked at the foamy substance on my arm. I could probably learn bubble if I could make that stuff. I'm not sure spit is supposed to be foamy, though. Maybe it's some kind of result from a disease or something. Of course, I sure as Mew didn't care. That's what probably gets me in so much trouble, not caring. But, again, I sure didn't care.

"_What did you call me?_"

"What wrong, Dunce-shell? Did I _stutter_?" I smirked evilly at him as he was coming to terms of my insult. He clenched his fists together and I could see his jaws grinding together. Hah, looks like this guy is easily worked up.

"Don't you _dare_ make fun of my shell, _Charmander_" He sneered my species as if it were an abomination or something. Let me tell you, this really got my blood running; if there was anything I took pride in, it was the fact that I am a Charmander. Of course, it was probably the same for him. And Pretty much every Pokemon. Every species of Pokemon has their own defining traits they take pride in, like a Squirtle shell, or a Charmander's fire—after all, what Pokemon do you know has a fire at the end of its tail?

"That raggedy thing?" I played it cool. "That's what you're getting worked up about? It looks horrible as crap. I'd tell you to take it off, but you look worse." My smirk grew as I could literally see him boil with anger. Yeah, this is way too fun.

"You better stop, Charmander," He spat out through his gritted teeth. "After all, you're _weak to my attacks._" Ooh, pulling out the type card. How original. Not. Everyone knows just because you have a type advantage that doesn't mean you're going to win a fight. Eitherway, I didn't say anything for a second, besides quirking an eyebrow and turning my head.

"Is that a threat?"

"You don't half to make it one." Ha-ha, I swear, if I didn't hate this dude's guts, I'd like him! He's got guts—which I'm currently hating.

"You must be new around here, Dunce-shell." My smirk grew into a grin and I folded my arms across my chest. "'Cause around here, I'm the top dog. I make the rules. You follow them. I say something, you listen for your life. You mess with me, and you might as well die, because I'll be leaving you feeling like death itself."

"Top Dog? You're more like a giant Jerk," The Squirtle sneered. "To think I was actually worried about you having rabies or something!" Crap, what? Rabies? This guy can't be serious.

"Dunce-shell. Aren't you supposed to run if some guy has rabies?"

"Call me that one more time and I swear I will maul you!"

"Dunce-shell." I stuck my tongue out at him and he totally lost it; yelling angrily into the air. He reached out for me, but I narrowly stepped back. "Heh! What was that? You're imitation of a Snorlax? It sucked, just saying. Here's an idea, why don't you fall in a pit and die?"

It was a bad insult i know, but it seemed to have an affect on...something. you see, suddenly everything around us began shaking. The trees, the ground—everything. The tremble was building up so much that the ground started cracking up. It was crazy. I could see some of the trees in the distance falling down and a bunch of bird Pokemon escaping in mass hysteria. Rocks started to fly out from the ground and beating up the cracking terrain. In the corner of my eye, a Meowth that was in the area had the unfortunate luck of getting slammed in the head by one. He was out like a light. I winced a bit. That'd be hurting for a couple of days.

Here's when what I said actually comes in though. A gigantic crack in the ground opened up right besides me and the Squirtle. With the ground shaking and stuff, I almost fell in, if it wasn't for that Squirtle, who purposely slammed away from the trench in the ground. Making eye contact, I shot him a thank you an he nodded. What? He saved my life. I wasn't going to be a complete jerk to him again. I _do_ have morals, thank you.

Maybe the trench in the ground didn't like us avoiding it. Maybe, it wanted us to fall inside of it. Whatever it was, it was teaming up with whatever was going on to do it. A gigantic rock shot out of the ground from nowhere and impaled us. Hot _damn_ did it hurt. We flew straight to the trench that opened up behind us and fell straight in, the Squirtle's attempt at saving us completely in vain.

The gigantic rock drilled us through layers and layers of earth as I saw my life pass before my eyes. It wasn't much, unfortunately. The last thing I heard was what sounded like a muffled "Sugar honey ice tea!". Then, everything faded to black as I slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Authors Notes:**

**Hi. Odd here. Just telling you that this chapter has been edited as of 2/26/13. It was horrible at first, and the next few chapters will be too until I edit them. I'm sorry about this. I hope you can endure whatever you see ahead of you. It gets better soon, trust me. There's a reason why people like this story. (Which is something I'm still trying to find out).**

**(P.S. See something off? Please tell me. I don't have an editor so I do this myself along with help of my reviewers. **

**Also, I'm sorry this is so short too. The later chapters get longer, averaging out to around 6-7 thousand words a chapter. On a bell curve, it'd be leaning right with a standard deviation of 3 and 1.)**

**~Odd**


	3. A Cave To Die In

**Arc 1~ An Unlikely Beggining **

**Chapter 2- A Cave to Die in**

* * *

**Dirt Crevice BF 7 **

Darkness surrounded me. I couldn't even see my own paws in front of my face, it was so dark. Oh, wait. My eyes were closed…Heh-heh… Let's start over.

Struggling against my throbbing headache, I slowly opened my eyes… only to see a gigantic fanged bat staring back at me. Really it was huge! About two times my size. The dumb thing was just staring at me. It had a massive frozen-in-place mouth that oddly fitted its large body. If it could grin when I started screaming and swatting it away, I'm sure it would have.

"Aww, what's wrong? Is the Charmander afraid of little old' Golbat?"

I stopped my screeching and looked over to where the voice came from. It sounded really familiar…Oh, it was that Squirtle. For some reason, I didn't notice him here. He looked really smug too. I wouldn't mind wiping it off that blue little face of his.

"Ah, Squirtle. I forgot you'd be here too. I should have known, we were hit by the same rock and fell in the same hole in the ground and all…"

It was then I felt the natural urge to look behind me. So, I obeyed and quickly faced the darkness that was the rest of the cave.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Preparing myself," I answered. "After what happed today, there really might be a Persian out there, ready to eat me or something like that." The Squirtle simply laughed. Maybe he thought I was joking? I made perfect sense to me. Really, just think about it. I said he should fall down a pit, it happened and I came along for a joy ride. If the pit thing happened to both of us, who's to say that Persian or Snorlax thing will too? Go ahead, call me paranoid, superstitious even. I'd love to see your face when I get killed, but I'd be dead.

"Well, considering the fact that we've been here for more than an hour and we haven't been killed yet, I'd second-guess that."

There was that smug look again. If it wasn't for that near death- hold on. Memory check. We were hit by a gigantic rock, and said rock was the thing that pushed us through that crack right? So, right now, we should be crushed bloody pancakes under that rock. So, why aren't we? I looked up to what could only assume was the crack that we fell through. There was something stuck in it, and it was blocking the afternoon sunlight. The rock. Mercies of Mew! The rock got stuck during mid fall! I'm not dead! Ha-ha! Hold-on, if rock is stuck there, that means we are also stuck… down here; in the dark; alone.

"With the faces you're making, I can only guess you figured out the situation here. We're stuck and we only have two options. Wait, or go through the dungeon." The dungeon? So, that's what the darkness further in must be. I've only been in one dungeon before, and that was when I was a youngling, about a year or so after I hatched. I remember I was scared. There were weird Pokemon looking at me. The hungry eyes, I could never forget the hungry eyes. In all truth, I simply stumbled in it and I cried my little heart out until my mother rescued me a minute later. But still, it was a tragic moment for me at that age.

"You know," Squirtle began, "I tried to go through the dungeon alone. I went up about four floors too; but…but the Pokemon were too tough… I fainted a-and ended up back here. Look Charmander, I know you don't like me, and I don't really like you that much, heck we just met each other, but…this dungeon…it's tough. We wouldn't be able to make it out separately. We need to team up. That's the only way we'll be able to make it out alive."

I stood there, unfazed by what he said. I knew it was true, Squirtle's has unnaturally hard heads so, it would make sense that he wasn't that hurt by the fall and would wake up before me. I just wanted to see if there was a way to do this by myself. Yes, that's right; I want to stick to my stubborn Charmander ways.

Completing ignoring what he said, I set out to scour the dungeon for the main exit. With, unfortunately, two tagalongs right behind me.

"W-wait! Holdup!" Squirtle cried out. "Were are you going? Didn't you hear me?" I sighed. Did body language and actions mean anything to this dolt?

"Yeah, I heard you…"

"Then come on. I think we should go-"

"But, I'm not going to team up with you. I'm doing this alone. Just like how I've done everything else in the past. You want to team up? Then go with Mr. blood-sucker over there. I'm getting out of here by myself."

"Are you crazy? There's no way you can make it! I've already seen a bunch of the rabid Pokeémon that live down here, and most of them have a type advantage over you! You're just doing this because you're still upset I called you a jerk, aren't you? Can't you forget about that? I don't-"

"No," I interrupted angrily, "I'm not mad about that. You want to know what I'm mad about? I'm mad at you! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be stuck down here! If it weren't for you, I would be asleep or eating right now! I wouldn't be stuck in this stupid dungeon with a stupid bat, and a stupid know-it-all Squirtle! If it weren't for you-"

"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even have a chance of getting out of this dungeon because the earthquake would have still happened, and no one would have been around to help you, and you would be all alone and lost or even dead by now! Is that how you want it?"

That thunderstruck me, but I quickly got over it and gritted my teeth. I hadn't though of that in the mist of my rant. But, so what? I'm sure I would've made it out okay, just like how I'll do now…

"Just leave me alone Squirtle, I…I want to do this myself. Got it? I've been taking care of myself so far, this will be just the same. I doubt anything bad will happen." Those words were more of a reassurance for me. Words to lift up my morale and stuff. Just to say, they weren't working.

I looked over to Squirtle there and saw he had the most stupid look on his face. He was looking at me like he just ate a really sour berry and, at the same time, was trying to yell 'O'. Really, it was hilarious and I would've laughed my tail off if I hadn't seen the shadow that covered over mine. Putting two and two together, I jumped forward…

…right on time to avoid a slash that would have, without doubt, cut my head off. I looked over to size up my attacker: it was a bipedal Pokemon but it also had the muscles to travel quado-style, a yellow body, and two arms, both equipped with small, but sharp claws. Mew dang-it! A Psyduck; another water type to deal with!

"This Sandshrew's territory! You trespass!" It cried out in broken speech.

Oh…a Sandshrew …This would be hard. Can't say I fought one before, though. The name 'Sand' shrew obviously gives away the fact that it was a ground or rock type. So this would be pretty hard to beat with their ground attacks and all. This guy probably was pretty strong too. How could I tell? Well, the fact that it was little taller than me and had obviously large and built muscles helped a little.

"Sandshrew kill you all!" He exclaimed. He prepared him self for an attack, but I beat him to it.

"Not on my watch!" I grinned I fired a well-aimed Ember at his face. But, my grin fell as I saw that it didn't even faze him-at all. It did annoy him though. In an instant, grunted in irritation and began to dig into the ground, flinging the sand and dirt towards me and my poor eyes. I did my best to cover them, but of course, I was unsuccessful and had to rub my eyes to remove the irritating dirt from them.

By the time I could open my eyes with out pain again and looked up, the Sandshrew was gone and in his place was a hole in the…

"Oh no…." Dig. The worst possible move he could use. Any second now, the Sandshrew could pop up and use a ground-enhanced attack. Did I ever say that I hate surprises? Stupid surprising things being unexpected and all.

As expected, the Sandshrew popped out of the ground a little distance away and sent hurling rocks toward me with Rock Throw. Then, using Quick Attack, he rocketed towards me and jabbed his clawed paw into my stomach, which sent me flying into the air above him. That, friends, was Sky Uppercut. And let me tell you, If there was a sky, I'd be in it. But, since there wasn't, I simply crashed tail first in to the ceiling of the dungeon. My tail, showing its dislike in being crushed, sent a jolt of pain throughout the rest of my body. As if that was enough, the Sandshrew used Rock Throw again just for the heck of it.

I fell to the ground, mauled and in a heap of pain. I took a glance at my flame on my tail. It was a lot smaller than I was used to seeing it. I know it sounds weird, I mean, even I was thinking it sounded weird, but it sort of comforted me knowing that even my flame was feeling my pain. A knew resolution was formed inside of me. A determination to help my flame-to protect it. This feeling…it gave me courage and energy, and power. I felt like I could beat anything. …and my tail flame, it was growing! This feeling…it was giving it energy too!

I looked at the Sandshrew with a smirk. If it wasn't for the fact that I wanted to take down the Sandshrew, I'd slap myself for putting on the same cocky smirk that that Squirtle has. Anyway, I was smirking at the Sandshrew; If I do go down I'm defiantly taking this poor excuse for a rat with me! He seemed to take my new resolve as a challenge. In a sense, I guess it was.

He readied his small claws- which didn't look so deadly anymore; mine were probably bigger- and bolted towards me. I could see he was going for a slash attack, and I quickly avoided it… only to be shocked when I felt something cold run down the side of my cheek. Blood. How did he do it? I know he didn't touch me. He couldn't have, he was several feet away!

Like any other small cut, I ignored the pain and pressed forward. I charged the Sandshrew, who for some reason was just standing there, arms in the air and all. I didn't know what he was doing, and I sure as Mew didn't care! Or, I didn't care until the ground began shaking. It was just a tremor, but it was still strong enough to make rocks fall from the ceiling, which was happing right now by the way.

Well, the Sandshrew was smirking at me, and I finally knew what move he was using. There was only one attack it could be: Rock Tomb. Really deadly on my part. I've only heard about this attack though. It would crush it's foe under giant boulders and could possible kill. But, the attack was really hard to aim, so chances of getting out in time were pretty good. Unfortunately, you shouldn't leave things to luck and chance all the time, evidence of that? The giant boulder of death that's heading straight for me currently.

Out of the blue (no pun intended), I saw the Squirtle heading for the boulder, in fact, he was running towards it! At the last second, he jumped into the air in the path of the rock. What he was doing? I sure as Mew didn't care. It's not my fault if the idiot has a death wish.

I would have turned around to run if I hadn't seen him Headbutt the thing. The boulder, right where he smashed into it, literary cracked in half! I should've expected this; I did say they have hard heads, didn't I? He landed on the ground with a little wobble, but other than that, he was fine. He then looked over and gave me his smug smirk. I did my best to ignore it, actually, I was forced to because the Sandshrew whizzed by me with his odd Slash attack. This time, I didn't even have time to dodge and took a direct hit to my chest and collapsed on the ground.

Now, for those of you who have never had a giant gash across your torso, It hurts like hell. Though, the pain didn't even register into my body until a bunch of seconds after the fact. The gash was constantly gushing blood; There was already a big puddle of the red stuff under me. The blood loss was too much; I was loosing consciousness, probably even life. I looked up at the Squirtle. He was staring at me, eyes glazed over-too focused to see several boulders from the ceiling heading straight for him. I would've screamed out or warned him but, it was then that a creeping darkness covered my vision. I lost all feeling that I had and was completely physically drained. If you're a stupid person for simple words, I blacked out- again.


	4. A Bond 1

**Arc 1~ An Unlikely Beggining **

**Chapter 3- A Bond **1

* * *

**Dirt Crevice BF 7…still**

For the second time today, I woke up with darkness surrounding me. I checked to make sure that my eyes were open. Since they were, that means that it really was pitch black out. Oh wait- I was facing the ground, wasn't I? I turned around (carefully though, you know, to avoid chest and tail pain) so I was lying on my back. What I saw surprised me. I was back where we fell into this dungeon. The only difference was that it was as dark as night down here. In fact, it was night. If it weren't for my tail fire, it'd be really dark. And those last few sentences were pretty redundant.

"C-Charmander?" That voice…the Squirtle…it was still here. He had this strange look on his face- as if he had just seen a ghost or something. Whatever it was, it was ticking me off but I did my best to hide it. Can't say my best is much though.

"Oh, Squirtle. What do you want? Why are you even here? I'd think you'd leave here without me already. You do have a type advantage over a bunch of the Pokémon down here. "

"Y-you're a-alive!" The Squirtle was acting as if he was surprised or something.

"I sure hope so. I'm talking aren't I? Hold on, am I talking? ". I wondered aloud. "I don't really think I can check and see. So can you tell? Am I moving my maw?" The Squirtle just gave me a bewildered expression. "I'll take that as a yes. Well, that's good to know. So, what's wrong? Earlier you looked like you had seen a Gastly attempt to do the moonwalk. No wait, right now you look like you just saw a Gastly try to do the moonwalk, but earlier, you look like you first saw that Gastly. Does that make sense? I'm not really sure right now. Heck, I'm not really sure why I'm even asking you this. I sure as Mew don't care."

And with that, I began walking off. I took notice of the giant wound in my chest. Yeah, that's right; I was being a big dunce and was only noticing my fatal wound just now. Anyway, it'd be a big burden to have if I'm going to scour this stupid dungeon. The smell of blood would attract enemies and not to mention all of the pain it'll cause me. It's a good thing it already started to scab over. But in my opinion, it was taking too long, so I gave my wound a good ember and the whole thing scabbed over completely. Ah, the wonder you can do when you have fireproof scales! I returned to walking off before, of course, the dumb Squirtle stopped me.

"Wait! Charmander!" I looked back to see the Squirtle running toward me. There were tears in his eyes. Oh great, a sentimental moment. I really hate those, mostly because I stink like Muk at them. For some reason, I always seem to say the wrong things at the wrong moment. It's perplexing…

"I-I thought you were dead- b-before, when you woke up. You should have seen yourself. That gash you have- it's deep and there was blood all over the place! I was scared. I thought there was no way for me to get out of this place; that I would be stuck here forever! But you didn't die. It's a miracle from Mew! You should have died; you should be dead!"

"But I'm not. No small puny cut like that can kill me. Anyway, I got 'a go." Ok, maybe I was acting cocky but hey, you can't blame a guy.

"Hold on! Wait! Where are you going?" He asked.

"I thought it would be obvious, there's only one place I can go: out." But I'll never get there if a little blue turtle keeps on stopping me every time I move a muscle.

"Wha? Haven't you learned your lesson? That Sandshrew mauled you! You almost died! I don't know about you, but I like living. It's kind of fun, and uh- lively."

"Well, that was a one time thing. I just underestimated him, I think. Next time I meet him-"

"You'll die in the first hit. Here, why don't you just let me handle those rock and ground types, and you'll blast away the grass types that come our way? Come on, If we travel together, we'll be better off. Trust me."

"Oh, and what gives you the idea that you'll even be strong enough to take them on?" I retorted. Really, who did this Squirtle think he was? I, the terrorist of the grassland, who proudly keeps the fear in little hatchling's minds and dreams at night, was unable to defeat that Sandshrew. And he thinks he can even do an ounce of damage? Heh, he must be closely related to Clafairy, cause he's not from this world.

"Sandshrew should have kill you. But not worry, Sandshrew make no mistake this time." The new voice that had come into the conversation gave me a jump. I turned around and saw the Sandshrew that had almost killed me earlier. I was literally scared out of my wits. The Squirtle seemed to notice my current paralysis, either that or he just wanted to prove he was strong enough (most likely the latter), and stepped a confidant foot forward as the challenger.

"What gives me that idea? This does, Charmander!" The Squirtle, completely taking the Sandshrew off guard, sent a pressured stream of water at his face, which sent him flying to the wall, unconscious like he probably never had been before. I just stared. The Squirtle just shot down a Pokemon that had literally mauled me, in one move. Some might think I'd be embarrassed, scared, or something crazy like that. But no, I was frothing in pure anger.

"What the friggin' Mew! Why didn't you do that the last time I was battling it? I thought you cared whether or not I died? If you did, then why did you wait so long to do this? He wouldn't have impaled me and we would probably be out of here by now! What in the name of Mew is wrong with you?" I stormed up to him and brought my fist back to sock a good one at 'em. Really, he had the ability to stop that whole battle from happening, and he didn't even use it?

"Wait! Hold it, hold it! Well, yeah, I'm really sorry Charmander; I even beat myself up about this. See, when the Sandshrew first attacked, I sort of… forgot about my type advantage. -And, I guess I was too caught up in the action too." The Squirtle was rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. I could also see a little trickle of sweat fall from his brow. I clenched my teeth in annoyance. 'Forgot about my type difference'? If he really did that, he was a bigger idiot than I was! "Sorry Charmander, It won't happen again."

"I hope it won't, I don't want to get killed down here because of your stupidity. Maybe mine, but not yours."

"W-wait, does that mean we'll travel together?" He asked.

"Yeah, at least for now. I'd hate to admit it, but I'm a dead lizard without you. But don't get too happy, as soon as we're out of here, I'm going back to find a new home. My old one must be a wreck now."

"Good enough for me! I just wanna get outta here and swim in my pond again!" Typical water-Pokemon.

"Come on, let's get out of here." We headed out of the room and entered another. Finding a few strong Geodudes, the Squirtle got them out with one Water Gun each. Man, that thing was useful. We continued our search for something that would lead us out of this floor and, eventually, out of this dungeon.

* * *

**Dirt Crevice BF 3**

Not too long after the Squirtle nailed the Geodudes, we found the stairs leading up to the next floor. So far, we've had good luck, we just had to fight Geodudes, Golbat, Diglett, Aron (which I took out, mind you) Poochyena, even a Machop. But we effectively knocked each and every one out of consciousness and out of our way. Soon after, we found three stairs like it. We had just passed through our fourth set of stairs and I headed further in to see if any of the rooms around us had the stairs. I noticed the Squirtle wasn't with me and looked back to see him looking around the seeable parts of the dungeon franticly.

"What are you doing? This isn't the time for one of your water-type antics. We want to get out of here, remember?" The dumb idiot acted like he didn't even hear me. It was galling me too. I was right about to march right over there and sock it to him before he nervously tiptoed to a large rock and hid behind it. What in the name of Mew was he doing?

I walked over to where he was hiding and saw his shell against the rock. Was he hiding behind the rock and in his shell? What the Mew is wrong with him? I didn't exactly know what to do, so I kicked his shell. The Squirtle yelled as it toppled over twice and landed upside down with a resounding 'thunk'. The thing was surprisingly lighter than I thought it would be.

"Hey! What was that for?" The Squirtle asked after He popped his head out. Though, I didn't answer because, even though his shell was upside down, his body wasn't. It really creeped me out, like his head was on backwards or something.

"Can't you see I'm trying to hide? And you just kicked my shell for no reason! Don't you remember I take pride in my shell? Jerk!"

"Don't you remember? " I growled, "No one calls me a jerk and gets away with it! So far, I've let you, but not anymore! You're going down Squirtle!" We both jumped back to give each other room to prepare our attacks. I knew which attack he was going to go for and was well prepared for it.

The Squirtle spat a stream of water at me -Water Gun, I knew it. I waited for the right moment where the attack would block his view of me; which would be when the stream was about four meters in front of me. Then, without missing a beat, I jumped to the side of the attack, completely avoiding it. I ran to the unexpected Squirtle and gave him a good ember to the face. I burnt him a little, but wasn't satisfied with the damage so, I slashed him a couple of times. When I say a couple of times, I meant it. I mostly missed the four other times I swung and even one of the times that I actually hit him it was only across his chest- where his shell underbelly protected him. But hey, that left a good mark.

Unfortunately, I had to stop my assault because a bubble had popped in my face. Now, most of you are probably thinking that I'm either easily distracted or a real wimp to be attacked by a bubble. Well, sorry to ruin your thoughts but, this wasn't any ordinary bubble. You see, when it hit me it literally exploded and not only sent me airborne, but also drenched me in water. It was like some kind of super bubble or something.

I looked back to where I was standing a few moments a go to see a herd of those super-dynamic-power-bubbles heading towards me. And what do you know? That Squirtle was the one who was spiting them out. A Bubble attack. Completely astonished that something so innocent could be used so deadly- it had drenched me in water, mind you- I was unprepared to evade the attack and took it full on, which was kind a' painful. The blast sent me flying back into a wall. And once again, my tail was crushed behind me.

As I fell to the ground, I heard the stupid Squirtle's scream. I looked up in time to get trampled by him. He lied down and withdrew into his shell behind me in attempt to hide from something. It didn't work in the least. His shell had a much bigger width than my back. I looked to see what he was running from. Not too far away from us, I could see Pokémon approaching us. Heh, seems some Pokémon were attracted to our little brawl that we had.


	5. A Bond 2

**Arc 1~ An Unlikely Beggining **

**Chapter 4- A Bond 2**

* * *

I had to squint my eyes to make out what kind of Pokémon they were. All I could see was green and a bunch of long necks. They had to be grass-type Pokémon. There was no way a Pokémon could be that green and not be one of those mew-forgotten grass-types. Now, the long necks? Bayleef. I knew a Chikorita that I upset once. Her older sis was so angry that she literally beat me into the ground. I hate to admit it, but Bayleef are really tough fighters.

I had to stop my thoughts to avoid an incoming bunch of razor leafs and vine whip attacks. See, I told you they were grass types. It wasn't long before I noticed that some of the grass types, which were now charging me, were flying. There was only one conclusion that I could make, and it came down hard. Or rather, I did, when I fell down laughing my tail off.

They were Tropius. The Squirtle, who had beaten a Sandshrew, countless Geodudes, and a bunch of other ground and rock types, was scared of Tropius, the almost peace loving, fruit stuffing, wannabe wimp. Even if it did have a type advantage, Squirtle would probably win. It was that flat out ridiculous- to me at least.

By the time I calmed down, the Tropius had mostly surrounded me. I didn't care. They were going down. I jumped toward one to give it a good scratch across the face. It was either crying out in pain, or the fact that I chopped off the fruit that was growing on its head. Hold on- Fruit? I looked down at my rumbling stomach that was doing it's best to inform me of my hunger. This was totally unlike me. I never forget about my hunger. I looked up and narrowed my eyes at the Tropius. I now had a better reason to fight than just kicking some grass type pansy butt; Food.

I picked up the fallen fruit and threw it over to where the Squirtle was. I'd just store the fruit I get over there so it won't get in the way of the battle. I had to stop my thoughts because of something…weird. I was flying. I was just suddenly soaring through the air. It felt pretty good actually. Well, until I crashed into another wall…again. At least it was face first, not tail first. About that, is something wrong with me? Cause, for some reason, walls seem to have an unnatural and unhealthy 'attraction' towards me. It just seems like they get in my way, way too much.

After I got onto my feet, I looked up to see some of the Tropius in the air. They were flapping their wings like maniacs and creating some pretty powerful gusts of wind. So, they were using gust. I guess I should have figured it out earlier.

I ran to the side to avoid another gust, but the Tropius just turned to face me again, sending more gusts of wind at me. I fired an Ember to repel it, not my brightest of ideas. The Ember was stopped by the wind and was forced to fly towards me along side of the whirlwind. I got down on all fours and quickly ran to avoid the combined attacks. Dang it, there was no way I could hit them with a fire attack from this distance. They got me right where they want me.

I ran towards the Tropius, doing my best to fight against the winds, which wasn't much. I spotted a pebble on the ground and smirked. Deciding to do a little old fashion 'David and Goliath', I picked it up and flung it towards the flying pansies. Unfortunately, the pebble didn't make it and swerved back towards me, hitting me on my forehead. It was then, that I got an idea…

Careful not to hut my still aching tail, I slowly backed up against the wall. I moved along side of the wall, moving closer to the Tropius and was completely unaffected by the whirlwind. I moved closer and closer to the 'hallway' that lead to the exit of, not this floor, but this room. I jumped in the middle of the pathway and was flung back into the darkness further in- well, it wasn't dark now because of my tail flame and all… You get the idea.

Now, I wasn't the type to runaway from wimpy Tropius pansies, but they were really too troublesome to deal with. Sadly I'd have to say good bye to the food... Oh well, this way, I'd be able to get out of here faster. Now all me and the Squirtle have to…Ah! I forgot about the Squirtle!

I rushed back into the room, glad that there was no longer a whirlwind holding me back but also slightly horrified to see the Tropius launching Razor Leafs at the poor Squirtle, who was doing his best to escape the danger by hiding in his shell.

Being as discreet as possible, I moved towards the Tropius and fired an Ember at all of them. This made them start fleeing away from him. But, I wasn't done yet. I'm already attacking, so why not get some grub at the same time? Doing so, I launched another ember attack into the air and they fell onto the Tropius like deadly arrows, effectively knocking out a majority of them out of consciousness. I ran towards them and picked off every piece of fruit I could find that was dangling on their heads and piled them in my arms.

I walked back to see the Squirtle, with appendages now out of his shell, lying flat out on the ground. He looked up at me and did his little smirk.

"Man, thanks Charmander! I thought I was a goner! Those Tropius were really tough!" He sighed.

"I wouldn't say that. I took most of them out with only two Embers." I sat down next to him and laid the fruit I gathered between us. It made a pretty good sized pile…

"Well, you're a fire-type, so it doesn't count for you," he said defiantly. I smirked as I rolled my eyes at his comment.

"Whatever. Are you going to eat? Or should I eat your share as well?" I said as I shoved one of the fruit into my mouth. The Squirtle widened his eyes for a second before getting up and picking up some fruit for himself.

"Thanks by the way, for the fruit, I mean…"

"Eh, don't thank me; thank those Tropius for being so dang easy to beat." I said through a mouth full of food. I noticed a bit of the mashed food in my mouth fly out onto the ground. The Squirtle noticed it too, but we were too hungry to care.

"Okay Charmander, that's a bit much…" He said, mouth full of food as well. We both grinned and chuckled to ourselves. For the rest of that time, nether of us spoke another word, too focused on filling our stomachs.

* * *

**Dirt Crevice BF 1**

After the Squirtle and I finished eating, we got up to search for the stairs. We didn't have too much trouble finding them; just a Geodude or two, nothing that the Squirtle's Water Gun couldn't handle. After we climbed up the stairs, we entered a room that surprisingly already had the stairs leading to the next floor. That's right, no work for us! So, we headed up that flight of stairs, and so here we are! …Wherever here is…

We were trekking all over the floor for the next flight of stairs. I've been really wanting to get out of this place. This has probably been the most amount of eagerness I've ever felt about something- well, besides food.

We have to be approaching the main exit sooner or later. The three of us have gone so far. Wait a moment…the three of us? There were three: Me, the Squirtle, and that bat thing. What was it called? Moldbat or something.

"Hey Squirtle, what ever happed to that Moldbat?" I asked. He gave me a confused look which I returned with rolled eyes.

"Moldbat? What's a Moldbat? I don't remember meeting with one of those. It sounds like one of those evolutions of Zubat and Golbat. Maybe that's what you're talking about?"

"Whatever, I know Mr. Bloodsucker was one of those stupid bat things." The Squirtle smirked at my ignorance.

"Well, we did meet a Golbat." The Squirtle said, his grin, which didn't really bother me anymore, was plastered on his face. "I'm not really sure what happened to him though; he was gone even before I woke up. I wonder what happened to him…" He pondered in deep thought.

A few seconds later, after we entered and exited another room, The Squirtle spoke up again. "You know Charmander; we've really gone through a lot. You know, with me and you almost dying and all. Thanks again for saving me by the way."

"Uh-huh. And I guess I'm gonna have to thank you for saving me from that Sandduck-er, shrew. Sandshrew."

"No problem, Charmander. It's what friends are for."

I stopped right in my tracks, which probably was not a good idea because I tripped and fell on my stomach. Did he say what I think he said? He called me his friend. The only things other Pokemon have called me were, as you know: meanie, jack-ass, jerk, and then the famous 'jack-assed jerk from hell that thinks he's the boss of everyone' but, no one has ever called me…friend…

"Friend?" I asked, voicing my thoughts.

"Sure," Said the Squirtle. He was standing in front of me with his grin on his face. I looked up at him grinning down on me and his blue arm suspending somewhat of a distance above me. I grabbed it as he hoisted me up off the ground. "That's what friends are all about, right? You got my back, I got yours?"

We were now both about eye level, grinning to each other and still holding hands. "Sure, that does sound good." I replied.

"Hey, you know what? I just realized this whole time we've been calling each other 'Charmander' and 'Squirtle'. What's your name? You do have one right?" He asked.

"Of course I have one! My name's Red Fire. What's yours?"

"Water Gun."

"Water Gun? As in the move Water Gun? That's a weird name to have…"

"Ah, shut up! At least my name isn't 'Red Fire'. I mean, of course fire is red. What kind of name is that?"

"Watch it Water Gun, 'Red Fire' is a great name. Anyway, At least I'm not named after a stupid move."

"Hey, Water Gun is a cool move! And that means I'm named after a cool move."

"Well then, I'm named after a cool red fire." I retorted folding my arms in defiance.

"Well look who's the smart one! Fires can't be cool, they're hot! (I know I am…) Besides, a 'Water Gun' could douse a 'red fire' any day."

"Oh, is that a challenge?"

"I don't know, is it?" The Squ-no-Water Gun replied.

We were both staring intently at each other; both of us still had grins on our faces. The sunlight shining down on both of us…SUNLIGHT? My head shot toward the light source and I had to squint my eyes to see the bright exit to the cave.

"Water Gun! It's the exit! We made it out!" We both ran towards the exit, excited to finally get out of this damn place. The bright light got closer and closer and brighter and brighter as we neared the exit. We made it.

* * *

**Dirt Crevice Entrance**

We had to close our eyes completely when we were actually outside. It was just so bright. Finally, after our eyes adjusted to the sunlight, we took a good look at where in the name of Mew we were, cause, it defiantly was not the place we fell in.

For one, barely any trees were around the place. The area around us was mostly patches of grass and tons and tons of dirt and sand. What really astonished us was the fact that the entrance to the dungeon was just a raised platform from the ground that made a small, but big enough for other Pokemon to enter, hole in the raised bedrock.

"Okay Water Gun, where in the name of Mew are we?"

"Eh, you got me. I didn't even know there was a semi-desert in Greener Meadow."

"Greener Meadow?"

"Yeah you know, this whole place is Greener Meadow. Or at least I think it is…"

"Whatever, I don't care. I just want to go home so I can eat. Now, which direction would that be again?"

Before Water Gun could answer, I noticed a shadow descend upon us. I quickly looked up to see a weirdly shaped Pokemon flying at us. What made it look so weird? For one, there was that it looked like a bipedal cat, second, it had beady red eyes, and third, it had two long claws on each paw that were almost as big as me. Now, I don't know what kind of freak of nature it was, but I knew it was after us for some reason or another.

Water Gun and I watched as it descended upon us. It took a shifty glance at both of us before uttering one word.

"Die" And with that it racked our heads with his claws and knocked both of us into unconsciousness.


	6. A Reason For Things 1

**Man, sorry it's so late. This one was pretty hard to write. But its really long so that should explain it. Anyway, this arc, 'An Unlikely Beginning' is almost over now. Maybe a couple chapters more, but that's it. Pretty quick if you ask me.**

**Now then, read, enjoy and review. It'll make us both happy.**

* * *

**Arc 1~ An Unlikely Beggining**

**Chapter 5- A Reason For Things 1**

* * *

**?**

I slowly fluttered my eyes open, which I instantly regretted. The place I was in was filled to the brim of white blinding light. I quickly closed my eyes; that light did not help my throbbing headache. Ah, where in the name of Mew was I? Did I die? Was I in heaven? I sure hope not, cause if this was heaven, it was not what it was cracked up to be. I was feeling tempted to look around, so I obliged and opened a squinted eye to 'eye' my surroundings.

I was in a white room, obviously. I was also lying on a really soft white bed that must have been fireproof since my tail flame wasn't burning through it. Not even the soft grass I normally slept on could compare to this.

I looked to my left to see Water Gun in the same style of bed next to me, snoring away. At least he was here. Not that I like much him or anything. I was glad I was glad I could probe someone for answers. Further on past him, I could see a white door and the white flooring. Other than that, there wasn't much of anything else but white. Remind me to strangle the guy who owns this place for putting in too much white.

I looked back at Water Gun to see him stirring from sleep. He stretched and lazily opened his eyes, only to go through the same predicament I went through and blink his eyes a couple of time to get used to the light. He noticed me looking at him and grinned.

"Well look who's finally up!" He said in a tired voice.

"Check again, bright one. I think the light's getting to yah." I replied, slightly confused.

"Actually, I woke up earlier; Hard head and all. I just fell back asleep."

"So does that mean you know where the Mew we are?" I asked.

"No, not really, I just know that a Pokemon saved us or something and brought us here." There was a knock at the door and a Roselia came in with an amused look on her face. She then took out a board and scribbled a something on the piece of paper attached to it before looking at us intently.

"Hey you two! Like, it's great to see you both up and about! Especially you, Red Fire. I was like, getting really worried." She said, with her voice all peppy like most of those grass pansies out there. "And Water Gun, I'm like, glad that you're awake again. But, now that you guys are both like, awake at the same time, I should tell you that you have to be more careful next time. Don't like, you know, pick a job that you know you can't handle?"

Water Gun and I exchanged looks of confusion. "What in the name of Mew are you talking about?" The Roselia's expression became a bit more irritated. She crossed her petaled arms and began to tap her pointy root-feet on the floor.

"You're kidding, right? Rescue Teams are supposed to be responsible! Everyone knows Dirt Crevice is like, a dangerous place. But you two went there anyway!" Water Gun and I glanced at each other again. I assumed the same thought went through both of our heads: 'what the Mew is she taking about?' …or something along those lines. Personally, I felt my anger spike as she was yelling at us. Right as I was about to show the pansy a piece of my no-grass-type-tolerance mind, Water Gun spoke up.

"Eh, question:.. What's a 'Rescue Team'?" The Roselia stopped her ranting and looked at us like we were bikini posing aliens- which meant she was either mentally scared for life, or just thought we were crazy. I favor the former though.

"'What's a Rescue Team'?" She quoted back. She then took a confused look herself. "But then like, what were you doing at the entrance of Dirt Crevice if you're not a rescue team- and like, not even knowing what one is?"

"Eh-heh, that'd sorta be my fault." All eyes ran to the source of the voice, which was an odd Pokemon standing at the door. Besides it's weird red legs and headpiece and it's puckered lips, the fact that fact that the Pokemon moved it's head from one side of it's capped hands to another really creeped me out.

"Oh! Medicham! Like, I didn't see you there!" Cried out the Roselia. "You see, Water Gun, Red Fire: Dirge here is the one you have to like, thank for saving the two of you and bringing you both here. Isn't that right?"

"I guess you could say that…" The Medicham, Dirge, said while sheepishly rubbing the back of his head, acting like it wasn't a big deal- which it wasn't. Really, if it weren't for that weird cat thing, we would've been perfectly fine and in no need of help from a stupid Medichump.

"Thanks Dirge!" Exclaimed Water Gun, "I'm sure that Zangoose would've killed us if you didn't come along!" So that's what that weird Pokemon was. Zangoose… I'll be sure to knock out the next one I see for payback. Birds of a feather flock together as they say; or would it be cats of a fur- no that doesn't work… Eh, who cares anyway? I sure as Mew don't…

"Oh don't say that!" The Roselia cried out.

"Yeah, don't." I said while I rolled my eyes. Water Gun and Roselia both gave me an irritated glance.

"So, what were you saying? How's it you're fault that we ended up at that damn dungeon?" At this, The Roselia widened her eyes and clapped her hands- petals over her mouth.

"Watch your language! Cursing isn't befitting for a gentlepokemon!" I folded my arms and smirked at her. If it wasn't for the fact that I wanted that tidbit of info from that Medicham, I would have already toasted this pansy.

"Well, I guess Water Gun didn't tell you enough about me, 'cause even he already knows I'm damn well not gentle." I retorted. Water Gun nodded his head sheepishly when everyone looked at him expectantly. "Now then," I said, pressing back into the subject I deemed important. "Medicham, spill or die: You said it was your fault; why?"

"That's because he was the one who opened that fissure in the ground." Replied a new voice. We look at the door, behind the Medicham to see where it came from. It was a brown Pokemon, a lot shorter than Dirge. It's most distinguishing feature was probably the skull helmet on its head and the long bone it had in its hand.

"Really Dirge, You could've just told me that your surprise was learning Earthquake. You didn't have to show it to me in a spar!" If possible, Dirge puckered his lips even more. Putting two and two together, I glared at Dirge. The stupid idiot's Earthquake was the reason why I almost died in that stupid dungeon. Now I really want to show him my 'thanks'.

"Listen, Listen! You can't blame a guy for being eager! Everyone get's eager, right Tarsal?" Tarsal, the Marowak, as if reading my thoughts jumped up above Dirge's head and whacked him with his bone. I'm cheering him on.

"This simply shows the lack of training you have." Tarsal said with a voice full superiority. "It's one thing to be eager, but it's another thing to let that eagerness control you. Besides, Stupidity is different from eagerness."

"Yes, sir." Dirge said while looking to the ground in shame and rubbing the back of his head, this time in pain, not awkwardness.

The Roselia nurse, who was tapping her pointy foot-root away the whole time, smiled brightly and walked towards the door.

"Well, like, now that we've got that cleared up," She said brightly before her face quickly switched to one of irritation. "Get out! You know proper protocol! You two didn't sign up to be visitors so like, shoo you two!" She screeched as she slammed the door in Dirge and Tarsal's faces. Roselia then turned back to us and smiled brightly. Whoa, talk about mood swings! I wonder if she's having an egg sometime soon…

"Sorry about that. Our patients are supposed to be given like, as much silence and rest as possible so they can get all better! Since you two are awake, you'll both be released like, later on this afternoon. A quick recovery after being unconscious for almost two days if I've ever seen one!"

"Two days! We've been asleep for two days?" Water Gun exclaimed. The Roselia smiled and nodded.

"Yup! Besides some head, wound, and tail injuries," She said looking at me, or more specifically, my scar that ran across my chest. "You two were like, extremely dehydrated and near the edge of starvation. Anyway, I'll see you guys later on at your last check up, then you can go. See yah!" She said as she left the room and closed the door behind her; the resounding 'click' of the lock told us the stupid pansy wouldn't bother us any more.

I laid there staring at the door that the pansy left. I didn't really know what to do. I'm stuck in this place (hospital) with a pansy nurse and a room full of this annoying white. It can't get better than this, can it? At least Water Gun is here. Actually, I'm not really sure if he's a blessing or one of my many curses; idiot is pretty annoying. Not as annoying as everyone else back at the meadow, but still, annoying is annoying.

My mind was slowly drawing a blank. I was getting bored, and fast. I looked back to Water Gun, who was snoring away like a…turtle snoring away? Whatever. I sure as Mew don't care. Actually, sleeping doesn't sound too bad right now, I was feeling a little tired. So, I lay back down on my side and wished to Jarichi that I'd dream about that delicious mountain of berries again…


	7. A Reason For Things 2

**Arc 1****~ An Unlikely Beggining**

**Chapter 6- **** A Reason For Things 2**

* * *

**Later On That Afternoon…**

Me and Water Gun were released out of the pansy prison later on that day, just like the rose pansy said. That whole place was filled to the brim with grass-types! There were a bunch normal types too like Chansy and all of those other healing Pokemon. 'Course, the way they are all cheery and junk, they might as well be classified as a pansy too.

We left that place were instantly surrounded by mayhem; Pokemon running around everywhere, shouting, yelling, bartering items at a bunch of booths, annoying younger Pokemon playing around, worried mothers shrieking at their kids, lazy bird Pokemon flying to get around faster. This place was a mess. A weird red and tan bunny Pokemon quickly wobbled past me and ran into me, almost making me fall over. I recoiled in disgust as lifted my foot from something sticky and putrid. My stupid nose told me it most likely was bird crap mixed with some expired fruit. The Pokemon muttered a low 'sorry' before quickly wobbling off. I sped up my pace to ketch up with Water Gun while dragging my contaminated foot against the dirt ground. The shouting was giving me a headache, the stupid kids were annoying me, and I had expired, sticky crap on my foot. This can't get any worse. I mentally cursed karma as I felt something warm and squishy splatter on my head. Listing to my better judgment, I didn't look to see what it was, even though I knew, oh how I knew…

Doing my best (which, again, isn't that much) to Ignore the weird looks everyone that I pasted gave me, I followed Water Gun since he looked like he knew where he was going. Hopefully he was getting us out of here, not leading me to some more crap; both figuratively and literally.

As we were walking, we began to exit the business district and entered a suburban area. This area wasn't as busy or loud as the other urban area. There were barely any other Pokemon out. There were some kids playing around and stuff, but none of them were acting crazy like those other ones in the shopping area. If I wasn't paying attention I wouldn't have noticed the landscape slowly fade from suburban to a sort of heath-ish land. You know, bunch of bushes, occasional tree, rough grass, and, of course, dumb pansies. It was pretty cool; and I might or might not have been more appreciative of if I wasn't so impatient to go home.

"Come on, Water Gun! Can't you go a little slower?" Even though I was ahead of him, I could still tell Water Gun was rolling his eyes.

"Jeez, this isn't a marathon! Besides, I'm still a little tired from that dungeon; any faster and I'll die."

"You don't see me stopping you." I retorted. Further down I could see less and less trees and bushes. I could even feel it; we were getting closer to what I called home.

"I hope you don't mean that, Red Fire. I am the only leading you out of this palace. Hey, that reminds me! I've been meaning to ask you: what'd you think of your visit to Ivy Town?"

"Ivy Town? What's that?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion. A couple of scruffy Pokemon- Rattata if you want 'a be technical- approached us in curiosity. A small flame from me sent them running though, and caused most of the other curious Pokemon to quickly loose interest and run away in fear.

"We were just in Ivy Town, stupid. And Ivy Town is in Greener Meadow. Oh, hey," Water Gun pointed ahead of us. "I think we're getting close to your meadow." I looked up, and sure enough, I could see that fissure in the ground that we fell threw.

I could barely recognize my meadow. There were chunks of rocks all over the place; most of the ground was torn up, leaving only patches of grass surrounded by rocks and dirt. Small fissures, including the giant one that me and Water Gun fell threw, made the whole area look like a battlefield; and the nasty smell coming off of the place was telling me that some Pokemon decided to make this place their crap hole.

"Damn!" I cursed as I kicked a medium-sized rock, wincing slightly as I found out it was stuck in the ground, "Ow! This place looks like a pile of defected crap! So much for 'home, sweet home', eh Water Gun?" Said Squirtle chuckled slightly at idiotic antics.

"Yeah, this place is a mess! I hope you've got a place to sleep. I mean, you can sleep here, but not even a Grimer would want to do that- even with the smell."

"No, I don't," I sighed, "And I can't even take some of the territory from the pansy grass-types! The adults around here have been getting tired of the crap I've been pulling with their kits. About a week ago they decided to 'tell' me that." 'You reap what you sow' as the saying goes. Honestly, cursing karma starting to become a habit. Now I'm gonna have to become the wandering Charmander again and find some home probably miles away. Oh joy.

"You can't really blame them, Red. You are sorta a jerk" I gave a challenging smirk to Water Gun.

"Looks like you didn't learn your lesson."

"No, it just was never taught." He retorted with his know-it-all grin. I noticed that it didn't falter when I began squeezing my balled up fist and glared at him. "Aw come on Red Fire, are you really gonna do that to your new roommate?" New what-who?

"Roommate?" I shouted; I could see some bird-Pokemon that was startled flying away, was I that loud? I looked at Water Gun like he was crazy- What do I mean by 'like'? I'm sure as Mew that that Squirtle is downright crazy.

"Well, I couldn't leave you in this place. Putting it short, it's looks like-well, crap. So, I was thinking and decided to let you bunk with me! Unless you want to, you know, sleep here. I know I wouldn't…" I looked at Water Gun with a knew admiration. I only just met him and he's already letting me stay with him. Even after I've been a jerk to him and everything. Mind you, I didn't say that I'd change.

"Really? Do…do you mean that?"

"'Course! Why would I say it if I didn't mean it? So, what'dya say? Wanna live with me; I could really use the company?"

"Sure, I mean, it's not like I have any other place to stay. . ."

"Awesome! We're gonna be roomies!" Water Gun exclaimed, striking a pose with his arm outstretched and his hands making a peace sign in the air.

"Hey don't get the wrong idea! I'm only going to say with you in till I get another place to live, after that, I'm gone." Water Gun flashed his know-it-all grin at me.

"Sure you will," I could almost feel the sarcasm dripping from that, "I know you Red Fire, after a couple of days, you're gonna get uber-comfortable and never want to leave! We'll be room-mates for life! Um…RMFL!" Water Gun exclaimed while doing an odd looking pose.

"Like mew you know me! We've only known each other for four or three days, three of those days we were friends and two of those days we were knocked out like a bunch of Snorlax after an eating competition!" Unfortunately, I was speaking to deaf ears; Water Gun was too busy ignoring me by making modified versions of his 'awesome' pose. Right before I was going to punch the daylights out of him, that Medicham and Marowack from earlier came out of nowhere and approached us. I could notice the smirks when they notice the crap on my head.

"Aqua Jet, Orange," Said the Marowak, getting our names completely wrong, might I add. "I thought I could find you here! Well, Dirge did actually; this is where he saw you two first."

"It's Water Gun and Red Fire." I said in irritation. How in the name of Mew did he get 'Orange' from 'Red Fire'? I'd like a name that actually rhymes with something, thank you. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," Began Dirge, the Medicham, "I wanna apologize again for like, legit-ly wreaking you home. I should've known better than to use earthquake with innocent Pokemon around."

"Aw, It's fine really! It was only my home, it's not like I actually lived there. Screw this apology! You're going down!" I rushed at the Medicham with all the anger I had, not even thinking about the fact that he was one of those power house fighting type.

"Sugar Honey Ice Tea!" Dirge shouted out, holding his arms to try to lessen the damage―or so I thought. Imagine my surprise when I slamed muzzle first into a giant pink, glowing wall.

"Yeowch! What the Mew was that?" I shouted after landing on my butt. I rubbed my muzzle to soothe the pain before getting up to ignore all rational thought and rushing the Medicham again― or I would've had Water Gun not stopped me.

"Red Fire, stop! He apologized already; you shouldn't attack him. I mean, he's a fighting type. Besides, you don't need this place anymore, you're gonna stay with me."

"Ah, that's good to know!" exclaimed the Marowak, "We were wondering what Orange would do for shelter. Since that's settled―"

"Hey! What am I, Tauros crap? Screw this! It was my stupid home for Mew's sake! If I still had it, I wouldn't have to stay with Water Gun!"

"Just ignore him, he's still worked up about the dungeon." Said Water Gun looking at Tarsal.

"No I'm―"

"About that," Tarsal said quickly, "We were ordered to bring you to the RBO headmasters. See, your performance in that dungeon was outstanding. The fact that two common folk were able to scour Dirt Crevice, a C level dungeon, backwards no less, without any training is amazing. If everything goes well, you'll both be part of some rescue team in no time."

Water Gun and I were both looking at Tarsal in confusion. What in the name of Mew was he talking about? Thankfully, Dirge answered our unvoiced question.

"Oh, in case you didn't know, The RBO is the Rescue Base of Operations. All of the prissy formal Pokemon call that, but we normal Pokemon just call it the Rescue Base. There really isn't any point for the 'of Operations' part. It's pretty legit: all of us rescue teams hangout there when there aren't any boring meeting about natural disasters and classified stuff." Dirge rubbed the sore spot on his side where Tarsal elbowed him for both calling the meetings boring and calling him 'prissy'. "The Rescue Base is also where we get rescue mail- if it isn't mailed to our Rescue Team Bases- and there are some legit tunnels going throughout the whole town. So, will you come?" The two of them looked at us expectantly, which caused Water Gun to look at me expectantly, which caused me to roll my eyes at all of them.

"Really, Water Gun? My home is destroyed and I'm living with you. I don't know where you live so I'm gonna have to follow you around for a long while- or at least until you go home. So," I said, deciding to turn the tables and look at him expectantly, "Are we going?"

Water Gun grinned. "Yep!" He said while nodding his head excitably. And with that, Tarsal and Dirge led me and Water Gun to who knows where. Water Gun running eagerly and me dragging my feet because of not having a chance to wipe off that stupid crap on my head…


	8. An Offer Of Choice 1

**Arc 1~ An Unlikely Beggining**

**Chapter 7- An Offer of Choice 1**

* * *

The Marowak and Medicham led us back into that stupid city (I think Water Gun called it Ivy Town though). And, once again, Pokemon all around stopped to look at the crap covered Charmander. I was really getting annoyed with all of the attention. So, a few well-set embers at a booth or two gave them something else to look at. As we were walking by, I noticed that most of the booths and stands were shaped like the Pokemon were running it. For example, at a big Kagashkan shaped booth, a regular sized Kagashkan was running the stand; which appeared to be a storage like stand. There were a bunch of Pokemon shaped booths, like Kelcon, Meowth, Marowak, Loundred, and a bunch more that I couldn't see. In fact, all of the buildings around here were Pokemon shaped except that pansy healer's place, which was a squarish dome building. Yeah, I'm not that great with detail. It was overused, but the Pokemon shaped buildings were creative, I'll give it that.

Dirge and Tarsal led us through the disorder and around the heart of the town until low and behold, right in the middle of everything was a giant Egg shaped building. It really fit in with its surroundings with the weird buildings and all. They led us through the doors of the building and to a desk where a female Delcatty was waiting in boredom for who knows what.

The Delcatty looked up to us and took a curious glance at my head before sighing. In all truth, she looked miserable, but I sure as Mew didn't care. I was hungry, and tired, and I had crap on my head. All I wanted to do was wash up and sleep, but no, Water Gun had to follow the idiots that wrecked my home for no freaking good reason at all.

"Hey, Tarsal. Back so soon?" Said the Delcatty in a tired voice. "I thought you had a mission."

In response, the Marowak nodded. "I did. It wasn't long-term. I'm about to finish it. All I have left to do is bring these two to the Headmasters. Are they open right now?"

The Delcatty sighed and nodded tiredly; I was really starting to wonder how long it'd take her to fall asleep. "Yeah, They have been for the last three hours. It looks like they're waiting for someone. It must be those two." She said whiled eyeing me and Water Gun. "I don't see what's so important about them; what ever it is, it must be troublesome— most things are.

"Don't worry Delly, you'll know soon enough." He replied with a knowing smirk on his face. And with that, we headed on through a door to the right of the desk. I could hear a faint but angered 'Don't call me Delly!' as we climbed up the stairs that were behind the door.

* * *

**The Rescue Base's Headmasters' Meeting Room**

The stairs led to a large room. There were torches on the wall to give the room lighting. The bright orange fire was reflected against the tiled floor that would otherwise be cold if there wasn't a big furnace against the far right wall. Above the furnace, I could see an old map that had several locations circled out. At the edge of the left wall, a giant bookshelf was stuffed to the brim with old and new books and scrolls. Further, away from the bookshelf, near the middle of the left side of the room, there was a pretty big table and around it were three Pokemon with their own hand of playing cards. A bluish dog-looking Pokemon was holding his hand, while two bird Pokemon had their hands floating in front of them and surrounded by some kind of pinkish energy. Pretty weird if I say so; and what do you know, I do! Of course, taking account of how weird they looked, the strange floating cards seemed to fit. Pretty strange that they didn't look at us. I guess all three were too absorbed in their game to notice our presence.

"Any twos?" asked the blue and black dog-ish Pokemon.

"Yes, I have three." Replied an owlish Pokemon while giving him three cards. I was surprised to hear a feminine voice come from the Owl. But now that I think about it, I could smell that she was a female. and I noticed the general female curves on her."How did you know, did you use your aura? Because if you used your aura-"

"No, I didn't use my aura sight. Even if I did, it wouldn't matter because someone used her physic abilities in the middle of the game. The game isn't fair when you read other people's thoughts." I guess the owl didn't feel like being humored, because she pouted (or as much as a bird can pout) and looked away towards the ground. Well, she would've looked at the ground, if my feet weren't standing on it. So, the owl noticed us standing there, watching the leaders of The Rescue Base play what I guess was a game of Magicarp.

"Oh? What's this? Jay, Raí, I think our guests are here." She said.

"I see. I was sensing their 'presence' quiet some time ago. Strong they are. I feel it." I guess the weird green bird talks as weird as it looks. As soon as that thought entered my head, I felt a sense of foreboding. All three of them looked a me with unpleased looks. Could they read my thoughts?

"Yes we can." Said the dog-Pokemon. As you can guess, that creeped me out to no end. These three looked like they could beat me to the dust with just a flick of their paw or…wing. Damn, I'm going to have to be careful of what I say and think…

"A Xatu I am. All of my kind speak and look like so. How am I weird?" Everyone in the room looked at me at in confusion, well, except the other bird and that dog Pokemon, he looked mildly angry. And, for the second time in my life, I felt like wetting myself. I was doing my best to think of some way to get out of this. Maybe… since there is a bunch of Pokemon that look like that Xatu, he isn't weird. Right? Please tell me I'm right…

"That is indeed a good answer. However, perhaps my appearance to you is weird because my kind you have yet to see. In the case of that, the appearance of anything and its descriptions is only in the mind of the beheld, yes?"

It took me a moment or two to figure out what he was saying, but even after I decoded it, I was as confused as a Psyduck with his head stuck in the ground. I thought he was offended by me calling him weird, but now he's agreeing and standing up for me? I starting to feel like going back to not caring again, at least things weren't so darn complicated.

"I nether agree nor disagree. But this I shall warn you: it is rude to talk in such ways about someone either in front of them, or behind their backs. You agree, yes?"

Deciding to use my actual voice instead of thinking, I nodded while mumbling: "Yes, sorry."

"Hey, what's this about? I don't have any idea what's going on." Asked Water Gun. Unfortunately, or not, his question was never answered. Or, at least I think it wasn't. Water Gun only gasped a second afterwards and then looked around frantically. Stupid water type antics.

Deciding to stop all of this weird brain talking stuff, the owl put her wing on the dog's shoulder. "Jay, Raí, let off a bit, he's a rookie after all."

"Yeah, you're right Tawn." Said the dog. "So, let's get on with this." he turned to Dirge and Tarsal, who were standing behind Water Gun, and smiled brightly. It was a different look than what he gave me, and it seemed more… comforting.

"Tarsal, Dirge, I appreciate you bringing these two here. You'll be rewarded with the normal amount of money you receive for a D rank mission. You two are dismissed." I guess they were expecting to be here during the meeting cause they were really surprised when he asked them to leave. They quickly recovered from their shock though, and after mumbling something or another, they zipped out through the door.

After they left, the three leaders faced towards us. "Now then," Said the blue dog, "Before we begin, we'll introduce ourselves and, seeing you're memories, I see that none of you have ever seen our kind, so we'll tell you that too. Let me start; Red Fire, Water Gun, I'm Jay, the Lucario." I flinched when he said he looked at our memories. I wonder…how far back did he go?

"I'll go next," said the owl. "I'm Tawny, the Noctowl, but you call me Tawn." She said, winking at us. The next to speak was that weir- Xatu.

"Raí is my name. The two of you already know that I am a Xatu."

"Okay Red Fire, Water Gun, we already know your names and species, so lets start this meeting." the lucario said.

"Yes, lets. But, how about we do this over a meal?" said Tawn. I gleamed excitably. Did she say food? Now we're talking! Besides those food pills that the pansy gave us, I haven't had anything to eat in the past five days! Just thinking about it makes me famished! Oh food! Glorious food…


	9. An Offer Of Choice 2

**Arc 1****~ An Unlikely Beggining**

**Chapter 8: An Offer of Choice 2**

* * *

**The Rescue Base's Headmasters' Meeting Room **

So, after several minutes the Lucario and Rai set up two extra chairs at the table while Tawn, the Noctowl, came back with some food that she ordered from some restaurant. After we were all seated, Tawny passed the food out and we started eating/the damn meeting.

Before we go into the meeting, I have to say that the food was amazing. We had fried Magicarp surrounded by a bunch of berries. When I bit into the Magicarp, my mouth was flooded with its delicious seasoned juices. I could even taste the delicious fruit that were fried with it, like Sitrus and Figy which made the Magicarp a little spicy, and Mago, which brought some sweetness in to the meal. It was the best meal I ever had! And it had the perfect combination of berries! This Magicarp would be proud.

"Can you please focus less on the food and more at the matter at hand?" At the corner of eye, I could see Jay roll his eyes at my thoughts. Darn, I don't know how I forgot about that reading minds thing. "Okay, back to what I was saying. We want you two to become a rescue team."

"Yeah," said Water Gun while nodding his head. "Dirge and Tarsal already told us that part."

"But," I began, "What I want to know is: what's a rescue team and why do you want us to be on one."

"Those are good questions." Tawn did her birdish smile. "Basically, a rescue team is exactly what it sounds like: a team that rescues other Pokemon. But, that's not the only thing they do; they also explore new places that have treasure, or maybe hunt down criminals; sometimes we might find or even fight legendaries. It's a really fun job."

"As for why it is you we need," started Rai, "this, Dirge and Tarsal told you also; the two of you have strong potential. Dirt Crevice is ranked as C class. The two of you are common folk, but made through it without many problems. This, only seasoned and trained Pokemon can do. Your contribution to our organization, it will be helpful to our goal."

"You're goal? What's that?" asked Water Gun. Now we're getting somewhere. I would never admit it, but I was really wondering why in the name of Mew they even think they need us 'common folk', whatever that is.

"Our goal, as a Rescue Base," Jay began flatly, "is to protect and defend everyone in Greener Meadow from harm, especially from the trio. We know that Joyous River is separating us from their territories, but that hasn't stopped their battles from crossing over in the past."

"Who the heck is the trio?" A question that I wish I could take back. Why? Well, as soon as I asked that, I got four incredulous eyes staring at me. Why the heck does everyone have to make a big deal out of everything?

"You don't know who the trio is?" I cringed at Water Gun's screeching. Dear Mew, I don't even think a Ferrow could get their voice that high! "Come on, everyone knows about the trio! Heck, where the Mew have you been for the last like, one hundred years?" Even if he was my friend, I really felt like punching Water Gun. For one: his voice was higher than a Sparrow's squawk—er—screech attack, and two: he was just annoying me. So, I bopped him on the top of his head with my fist in irritation. Unfortunately, all it did was disorient him for a few seconds, stupid Squirtle with his stupid hard head.

"Either un-hatched or avoiding you." And I was doing a good job of it until recently!

After gaining back his composure, and pouting at the few laughs my joke got, Water Gun got up and walked over to the map. Apparently he self-appointed himself to tell me who the Mew are the trio. "This is a map."

"Gee, I never would've guessed."

He ignored my comment and pointed to a big glob on the left side of the map that strangely looked a lot like smashed Caterpie crap. "This is Greener Meadow." Hold on, didn't he say that we lived in 'Greener Meadow'? So, you're telling me that I live in a glob of smashed Caterpie crap? That's good to know. Though, the landscape was pretty right. I could see the area where I live—used to live—and all of those forests and trees I always saw. That little river further down from me that apparently came from a much bigger river behind those forests. And then there was that small round circle that read: 'Ivy Town'. No. Mew. Frigging. Way. If Ivy town was only that small, then that means the whole Greener Meadow is the length of like, fifty Onix!

Water Gun then pointed to the other land area across the giant river. "This land is what we call the Three Territories. It's split up by the trio, who are always fighting and stuff. There's the Ghost territory; mostly filled with ghost types." He said as he pointed to a mountainous area that appeared to be divided by that giant river. He then pointed to the forest area above the mountains "This is the Physic Territory, it's mostly filled with physic types" Next was what looked like an even denser forest that flowed from the Physic area and bordered the mountains from the Ghost area. "And this is the Dark Territory, guess you can figure out what most of the types that live there are, right?"

"Whatever," I said. "I sure as Mew don't care. Why are you telling me this anyway? Scratch that, how the heck do you know this stuff in the first place?"

"Well, I have a map just like this one at my place. I like to look at it sometimes." He said while rubbing the back of his head. He then pointed back at the map and to the giant river. "So, we like to call this river 'Joyous River'. See, it separates Greener Meadow from the Three Territories, protecting us from the trio's battles and stuff. But about seven years ago, one of their battles got a little out of hand, and it somehow made it over here, hurting a lot of Pokemon in Greener Meadow. And I guess that's the rescue base's goal, right? To stop that from happing again?"

"Yeah," The Lucario grinned. "I'm glad to see you've done you're homework. But, even before that, we were protecting Greener Meadow. This Rescue Base has been around for at least two hundred years."

"Whoa! How old are you guys?" Exclaimed Water Gun. I couldn't really blame him; I was almost thinking that before I remembered they could read minds.

"No! It's not like that! There were other Rescue Base headmasters before us!" Tawn squeaked while she waved her wings frantically. You know girls and age.

"Now then," Began Jay, "We're getting of topic here. Our offer still stands, do or don't you want to be a rescue team?"

"No." I said before Water Gun could open his mouth. "I don't have any obligations to this 'Green Fellow' place and I sure as Mew am not going to start. Besides, you've got a bunch of Pokemon in this town. Can't you just recruit them?" Jay irritably frowned at this.

"Too long have we been a Pokemon of peace. Many have no desire for battles, or can even do so. Many have we asked, but in comparison, few have joined." Rai was looking off into the sun through the window as he said this. His voice sounded different; all mournful and forlorn.

"What will we get out of it if we do join?" Jay looked at me really funny like. So what, I'm a selfish Pokemon. Even if I do end up joining (not likely), I gotta know the benefits of this.

"An adventure," Began Tawn, "Your life becomes an unpredictable adventure with many mysteries. You also get fame, power, bragging rights, money. All of that stuff. But, most of all, you get friends. Loyal friends that will stay by you're side no matter what. That is the real benefit of this." At first the other two headmasters were looking at Tawn with incredulous disapproval, but near the end of her little speech, they were nodding hesitantly. Hey, looks like they have some kind of moral standards here.

"No thanks." I replied. "I don't even need those things. An adventure? My life's already hectic. Fame? Already have some. (May I remind you of 'jack-assed jerk from hell that thinks he's the boss of everyone'?) Power? Interesting, but not really. Bragging rights? I rather brag without rights, thanks. Friends? I've got one too many. Money? Why the Mew would I need it? I can easily get berries from a tree, water from a river. There's no point in us becoming a Rescue Team." I suddenly regretted everything I said when I heard a menacing growl from Jay.

Fortunately, my life was saved by the Noctowl, who had put a wing on Jay's shoulder to calm him down. She looked at me intently and there was a little crook on her beak. I guess it was a bird's equitant of a shrewd grin.

"Red Fire, you liked the food that we had this evening didn't you?" she asked slowly. It was a strange topic to turn into but, okay I'm all for food.

"Yeah, it was the best I ever had." I said hesitantly.

"What would you say if I told you that you could have this type of food anytime you want? Maybe even every day?" I probably had stars in my eyes by now.

"I can do that? Really? How? Where?" And there I was, spasing like the idiot I was. But, then again, food was just that awesome, can I really blame myself? No, I can't. Just think about it: every day you have no need to hunt, no need to forage. You just come home and have delicious, high-quality, gourmet food just handed to you on a sliver platter. I better stop… I can feel myself salivating.

"Yes, you can. All you have to do is go to one of the restaurants around here, they are all good. But, if you want to even get any food, you're going to need money, some poké. And the best way to get money, is by doing a rescue job, and the only way to do a rescue job is by being on a rescue team. So, if you want to have some delicious food like we just had, you'll have to be on a Rescue Team. Tell me Red Fire, do you want to be on a Rescue Team?" That's logic for you. So convincing, especially when there's food involved.

"Ye-"

"Kaawaahhh!" Rai interrupted. He didn't looked that pleased. "Tawn, these aren't reasons to join a rescue team! To become a rescue team… it is a serious life changing matter… one that must be made over time. Therefore, a day we shall let them have to decide. Come tomorrow to tell us of your answer. Choose wisely." He said looking particularly at me. Tawn nodded in agreement while Jay simply looked away out of the window, though, that doesn't mean he wasn't listening.

"But, choose carefully. Only do it if you want to and you think you can. Otherwise, don't even show up." Jay said without even looking away from the window. Guess he was pretty mad about what I said. "You two are dismissed."

We nodded and got up from the table and headed out through the door.


	10. A Confliction with Choice

**Arc 1**

**Chapter 9: A Confliction with Choice**

* * *

**The Rescue Base's Headmaster Meeting Room **

The headmasters waited until Red Fire and Water Gun closed the door and went down a few steps of the stairs before talking.

"Those two are quite a pair. Wouldn't you say so Jay?" Asked Tawny.

"Maybe. But I don't like that Charmander."

"Could you make it any more obvious? I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't join us with the way you acted towards him."

"It's just…he doesn't have anything we're looking for in a rescuer. There is no way a Pokemon like him can even become one! We put our hopes too high. Now we will face the consequences."

"Oh Jay, don't say that. There's more to anyone than what they show. For all you know, He could change and become a great rescuer; I know you did, remember?"

Jay let out a grunt and looked out the window, suddenly finding something behind it interesting. "Don't hold your breath." Tawny sighed and turned to Rai.

"What do you think about them, Rai? Do you agree with him?"

"An odd character Red Fire is…. as well as amusing. Never before have I heard one say Greener Meadow appears similar to squashed Caterpie excrement. That Charmander...with experience He speaks." He said as he let out a bird-ish chuckle. "I do look forward to his and Water Gun joining us; but if they will? That, not even I know…" Tawn nodded her head, smiling in agreement.

"Well, there we have it. Two to one, odds in favor of recruiting both Red Fire and Water Gun to our forces, if they choose to do so. Now that that's over, let's get back to our game. I haven't finished beating you two yet."

And with that, the three headmasters returned to their game of go fish.

Water Gun and I walked down the stairs and straight into the bored eyes of that depressed looking Delcatty. What was her name? Delly or something…

"Oh you two again. I guess your meeting with the headmasters is done. It sounds boring just thinking about it. What did they want anyway? Your stances shows nether of you have that much experience in fighting, and that neonatal look on both of your faces practically screams that neither of you have even been trained to be a rescuer. You two are just some common folk, probably even wild." Besides the fact that this cat basically summed us up by only looking at our stances and the way we looked at everything, she seemed pretty smart, not to mention lazy.

"Nice to meet you too. Name's Red Fire, Delly."

"My name is Delphia. Don't call me Delly. I don't like it when Tarsal calls me Delly, and I defiantly don't want you to start. Now, answer my question."

"Why should we tell you, Delly?" I did wiseacre smirk, a little too close to Water Gun for my tastes.

Still keeping her bored expression, she put an irritated tilted frown on her face. Man, this was just too fun. "You're troublesome, do you know that? That's something you bipedal lizards have in common. Just answer the question. Then we can be on our way…maybe even take a nap or two…"

"Like I asked-"

"Red, just stop. You're being obnoxious."

"'Red'? Since when was my name 'Red'?" I asked.

"I don't know, I guess it's just easier than saying 'Red Fire'. You gotta admit it's a pretty cool nickname!"

"No, it isn't. And don't call me 'Red'. I want a three syllable name and I can't have that if you call me 'Red'…It sounds dumb anyway."

"You two are troublesome." Sighed Delly. "Can't you just answer my question? Then you can be on your way, out of this troublesome building. Maybe even take a nap or two. Hey, I almost envy you." she lazily giggled.

"The headmasters wanted us to be a rescue team." Water Gun blurted out before I could reply.

"You two? That's interesting. Why would they want you two to be one of us? You're just a bunch of boring-"

"Yeah, Yeah. I hear it all the time. We're just 'common folk'. You wouldn't believe how much I'm tired of hearing that. All we did was fall through a stupid hole in the ground and now we're on some sort of display for idiots to look at."

"Whatever; you can go now. This whole thing is just troublesome. Ohh…." She yawned as she stretched against the counter she was sitting at. "I feel like taking a nap."

"Yah, whatever. Maybe by the wrath of Mew, we'll see each other again. See ya, Delly" I called out as Water Gun and I headed for the main doors of the Rescue Base.

"Till then, Red." Delly nodded her head once tiredly.

Stupid Squirtle. What did I get myself into?

* * *

**Water Gun's House**

It was nightfall when we finally reached Water Gun's place. He lived at the end of the lake that I could see on top of my hill. It was amazing how close we lived and never met each other. Though, it sorta makes sense. I normally stayed away from the river because of all of the water types. Most of the time, I hung around the forest or just wandered around the grassland. I'm gonna miss that life.

I was pretty surprised when I saw that Water Gun lived in a house, especially out here. Not many Pokemon do that, you know. The majority of Pokemon, who either don't want to be 'civilized' or simply just don't care, don't live in houses or any building. They just live in caves, trees, or anything else nature provides. The fact that Water Gun lived in a house, out here in the 'wild' just shows how much of an idiot he is.

The house was a little hidden, which was probably why I didn't notice it when I was on my hill. It was a smallish shaped house that stood on the lakefront. A mud and grassy hay roof was laid on top, making it blend into the ground. Around it were a few tall trees that made it blend in its surroundings even more. I'm not really one for construction and that stuff, but I did notice that the house was only made out of hay, sticks, and dried up mud. Even I have to say it was pretty cool compared to that brick stuff that everyone in the town uses.

Water Gun opened the round door and led me through my new home. Sorry, my new Temporary home. I'm just going to stay here for a while until I find a new place or skip town. It's not like I haven't done it before― skip town, not stay at someone's place.

"Ok, Red. I'm pretty beat right now, so I'm gonna hit the hay and give you the grand tour of my place tomorrow morning. After that, we can go to the Headmasters and tell them what we wanna do. Sound good?" Surprisingly, His whole place was just one room, with a giant hay nest-bed at one corner with a fireplace next to it, and a wooden table at another end. There was a bunch of other stuff I didn't recognize, but that probably was only because I was so darn tired. So naturally, I was kinda wondering what he meant by 'grand tour'.

"Sure, I guess." We walked over to the giant hay bed and lay down. I was on my back with my tail in between my legs and its fire in front of my face. It was the way I normally sleep, and the sound and warmth of my fire was pretty soothing. I looked over to Water Gun, thinking. I never did find out what he wanted to do- you know, become part of a rescue team or not.

"So, about that rescue team thing, what do you say? Do you want to become one?" I asked. Water Gun turned around and smiled at me.

"Yeah, actually I do. You know, I've always wanted to do something with my life. I didn't want to just 'live'. I wanted to have an adventure. That's how I came across you. That day, I decided to do a little exploring. It's amazing where that got us. But, now…I think this is it. This is the way I will finally have an adventure, some excitement, no more a boring, old life. What do you say, huh? I know you didn't want to at first, but near the end of the meeting, you sounded like you changed your mind."

"Tch, that was only because that Noctowl was bribing me! I already said I don't have an obligation to this place. Heck, I've only been here for two years! I sure as Mew am not going to go and risk my life saving someone's butt just because they got in a situation that they should've avoided in the first place. Sorry Water Gun, I just not the type." Said Squirtle was staring at me after I finished my little rant. His eyes...I could see a bunch of emotions well up inside of them: sadness, a little anger, worry, hurt, and most of all disappointment. I know I don't normally think before I talk, but it never hurt me this much to see the effect of it. So much regret...but I pushed it down; pity doesn't give, so neither will I. But, it made sense that it hurt so much; he was a friend, and for record, I didn't really have that many friends around with me being a jerk and all.

"...Okay. I guess it's nice to know what you think. Good night, Red Fire." Water Gun turned his back to me to lie on his other side. It was becoming harder and harder to suppress that little pang of conscious that kept welling up. Water Gun and I... we became fast friends. Friends... Who'd think it hurt so much to hurt someone who you only spent a day or two with.

I stared and my flame with this melancholy feeling coursing inside of me. I hurt a friend. My first and only friend. Someone who save my mean butt not one but two times, someone who more than tolerated me, someone who joked with me, someone who like me, and most of all, someone who actually cared for me. Huh, and I thought I was a jerk before…

While wallowing in my self-pity, I slowly fell asleep...and had one of the most mentally Mew-screwing dreams I ever had. Heh...thinking back, those are perfect words to put it...

* * *

**Red Fire's Mew-Screwed Dream**

I was running. Where? I sure as Mew didn't know. All I knew was that I had to get away. The shadows were warping and twisting around me. The trees were bending and curving in impossible ways. Eyes...disgusting, creepy, beady eyes were staring at me. And the sky. The sky was red, blood red and filled with black swirling clouds.

Suddenly, there was a flash of shimmering black lighting besides me as three eerie, blood-curdling laughers resounded everywhere. In the horizon behind me, three ominous translucent figures grin evilly at me. One, was a big dark blue and white bird; another, a white Pokemon with a green helmet; and the last, a purple and white ghostish Pokemon with icicles piercing from the crown of her head. Each had some creepy variant of red eyes. Dark, sickening, merciless red eyes piercing me.

As I was running, something- a building came into view. It was that Rescue Base. Somehow, I knew. Somewhere deep inside me I knew that was the only safe place. If I was there, I didn't have to be afraid. If I were there, I would be protected. I had to get to the Rescue Base!

I ran on all fours to go faster. But, no matter how fast I ran, the rescue base stayed the same distance away. I couldn't make it. But, I had to! The three Pokemon…they were coming. I had to get away.

Out of the blue, a gigantic black spinning blotch rapidly formed in front of me. It slowly sucked me into its darkness. It was so dark, so lonely as I fell farther and farther into the nothingness. The last thing I heard before I woke was the three Pokemon's evil, dark cackle. Those cackles that pierced my heart and shook my bones. That cackle full of pure hatred…

* * *

**Water Gun's House**

I woke up panting. I look around me: it was dark out and besides that and the sounds of the nocturnal Pokemon, everything was completely the same. No creepy Pokemon out to get me; no freakishly weird sky; and no gigantic swirling blotch of nothingness. It was just…normal.

I turned to look at Water Gun. He was in the exact position he was in before my nightmare. But his face; I could see marks of dry water. Tears; He was crying.

I lay back down and stared at the ceiling. I didn't know what to think about. There was Water Gun; he was my friend, and I hurt him. And that rescue team thing; weather or not I should join.

I yawned as my eyes became slightly droopy. I was still tired, even after that nightmare. Yes, there was that nightmare. It was weird; it was almost like it had a meaning to it. If it did, I knew exactly was it was. It wasn't a threat, but a warning…

"Join the Rescue Base, or die." I muttered as I drifted back to sleep.

In the corner of the room, behind Red Fire, a Pokemon opened its eyes and smiled. No, it wasn't an eerie or dark smile, but an innocent and happy one. It flew up into the air before taking one last look at Red Fire.

"Tee-hee! It's amazing what you can do with a little nightmare attack! Good luck Red, you'll need it!"


	11. Begin the Registration

**Arc 2 - Tag, We're IT!**

**Chapter 10: Begin the Registration**

* * *

**～Water Gun's House～**

Aside from that nightmare, I had a dreamless, restful sleep. I think hay bed helped. Besides those soft white beds at that hospital place; Water Gun's bed was the softest thing I ever slept on.

I woke up in the morning with the nightmare, though like a fading vague memory, in my mind. Well, that and the delicious smell of fresh berries. Water Gun must have woke up before me and had gotten out several berries for breakfast. He was already at that wooden round table on the other side of the room, eating slowly with a depressed look on his face. It was weird since depressed didn't suit his type of personality. Whatever his personality is.

"Morning, Water Gun." He glanced at me with a bittersweet smile and sighed before returning to eating.

"Morning."

"So, after we finish eating, you'll show me around you place, right?"

"Right." He replied coolly. I frowned a bit. What was wrong with him? I was supposed to be the anti-social― and I'll be dammed before we switched roles.

We both sat there in silence, eating until all of the berries were gone. Even after we finished eating, we still just sat in the awkward silence, Staring at the wall or the table. Finally, I had enough.

"Let's see this place you've got here. If I'm going to live here, I need to know how to get around. Last thing I want is to be attacked by some rabid Lincoon while I'm taking a dump." Surprisingly, he didn't even reply to my joke, Water Gun just stood up from his chair and pointed outside.

"Outside is the pond, where I bathe. There's a forest behind the house for foraging and hunting. Next to the house is an underground storage area. And Above the storage area is a rain barrel incase the river gets low. Lets go to the headmasters now." And with that, Water Gun wordlessly left the table and headed through the door.

I quickly followed behind him. In any other case, I would've wondered what the mew was going on. But, since I already had more than a good idea, I decided to keep quiet about my change of plans. I know I said I wasn't one for surprises, but as long as they were on other people and not me or I was the one doing them, it was fine― No, scratch that, they were plain hilarious.

It was probably my imagination, but we passed through the forest pretty quickly, a lot faster than we did last night. Either way we were at the city in no time and passed a bunch of those shops to head straight for the Rescue Base. Once there, we saw that same Delcatty from the other day at that desk and in the same bored position she was in.

Seeing that Water Gun wasn't going to say something as per usual, I decided to speak up after the weird awkward moment when we all were blinking at each other as if it were a language.

"Hey, Delly, do you know if the Headmasters are here?" Letting out an exasperated sigh, she stretched out her arms across the table.

"Don't call me Delly." She yawned "And yes, they just rushed in about a moment ago. Go up. Knowing them, they probably came here just for you two." The Dellcatty boringly watched us as we headed up the stairs to go to the Headmasters rooms.

～The Rescue Base's Headmaster Meeting Room～

"Truly, we never thought the two of you would decide so quickly on something so trivial. Either you both are quick thinkers or don't think much at all." The other two leaders, Tawny and Jay slightly chuckled at Rai's joke.

"Jokes aside," Began Tawny, "This is pretty quick. Are both of you absolutely sure of what you're going to do? It's going to change you're life and all…" I nodded.

"Yeah, after thinking about it last night, it wasn't that hard to decide." Tawny nodded sagely before turning to Water Gun.

"And what about you? You don't look too well. Are you okay?" After Water Gun nodded once, she set aside her concern. "So what did you choose? Are you going to turn down or accept our offer?"

"I am..." began Water Gun, "I'm going to accept. I really want to be part of a Rescue Team. And Red Fire decided to―"

"I decided to accept too," I interrupted, looking at Water Gun with a smirk on my face. "but only if I can be on a rescue team with Water Gun. He is my friend after all." Said Squirtle gaped at me. Really, his open mouth was quivering and tears were streaming on the sides of his face. And you know what tears mean, right? Sentimental moment. Oh joy...

Ignoring a snort and a couple coughs from Jay, Water Gun grinned back at me. "You really mean that Red?"

"Uh, of course I did. I would've said something else if I didn't."

"But, what made you change you're mind? Last night you were all against the idea, but now you're, well…"

"As much as I'd hate to interrupt, we are busy Pokemon, please continue this conversation sometime else." Said Tawny, "You two are going to become a rescue team. But, first one of us will go down to the Main Hall with you to register you as a proper team. I hope you've decided on a name for yourselves…" Suddenly, the headmasters began staring doggedly at each other. Their faces rapidly changing expressions like someone would when they were in an argument. Finally ending with an exasperated sigh with Jay, and two triumphant looks from Tawny and Rai.

"You two have been hanging around Delphia too much. You're almost as lazy as her. Red Fire, Water Gun; go down to the lobby where Delphia is. I'll meet you there. I need to grab some papers." Water Gun and I nodded and headed for the door that lead to that lobby.

"So?" Asked Tawny. Jay, who was fishing around for several forms on the bookshelf, gave her an annoyed expression.

"What is it Tawny? Can't you see that I'm busy? My teammate decided to be lazy today, so I'm stuck doing her work. The Base's affairs ARE mostly your work Tawny."

"Key word is mostly. You're in charge of some stuff here too. Besides, out of the three of us you work less since we barely hear from the other towns. Anyway, we're getting off topic."

"And would be….?"

"What you think of Red Fire!" Jay curtly rolled his eyes at Tawny.

"I thought we already talked about this yesterday?"

"Yes, but that was before that nightmare Red Fire had. I think it means something important. That he's supposed to be here. What do you think it meant?" Tawny asked, looking at Jay expectantly.

"Do I look like Darkrai to you? How should I know what that nightmare means?" Jay exclaimed while picking up the last of the papers. "See yah, Tawn, I have your work to do." Jay open the door leading to the stairs and proceeded to go down.

Back in the headmaster's room, Tawny was staring at where Jay once was. "Jay," She thought, "you might not realize it, but he is so much like you…"

I blinked. She blinked back. I blinked twice. She blinked once. Annoyed, I blinked twice again. She blinked once again. I growled and blinked once. She smirked and blinked twice. I snarled and was about to blink again before I saw that Lucario standing at the door watching us.

"Delphia, what― never mind I don't care." Jay walked up to Delly's wooden desk with a bunch of paper in his hand and set a couple of them down. "Here's the paperwork already completed for Water Gun and his friend. I'll be back with the rest once these two are officially members. You mind slipping them in for me?"

"Sure, sure; I got it.." Delly yawned.

Chuckling, Jay turned back to us. "Follow me. I'm going to register you two in our records, after that, you officially members of the Ivy Town rescue base." Nodding in understanding, Water Gun and I followed Jay behind Delly's desk, where there seemed to be a large, pitch black hole in the ground. I was surprised I hadn't noticed it before.

Jay walked up to the hole and, to our surprise, jumped down through it. Water Gun and I shared hesitant looks with each other before approaching the hole. Besides a thick, worn wooden ladder, there was nothing inside the hole. Water Grabbed the one of the rungs of the ladder and slowly lowered himself down. I on the other hand, decided to take a leap of faith like Jay and jumped down when I couldn't see Water Gun anymore.

Fortunately, I didn't fall on Water Gun, and landed upright on my feet. After my eyes adjusted a little, I took a look around me and grunted I grunted. There wasn't anything; other than the faded light from the hole above us, it was completely pitch black. Heck, even that stupid dungeon place wasn't this dark; I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face! Next to me I could hear Water Gun take a couple of steps in front of me on what apparently was a sod floor.

"Where are we; where'd Jay go; and why is it so dark?" Water Gun asked. I rolled my eyes a bit, I could almost imagine him looking around curiously.

"Like I'd know; like I'd care; and, thank mew that it's so dark I can't see your underwear." I snickered when I heard Water Gun sigh deeply.

"Red, is there ever a time when you are not sarcast― whhaaaaaa!"

"Water Gun? What happened?" I looked over where I last heard Water Gun scream. He didn't reply. "Water Gun? This isn't some game! Argh, stupid darkness, stupid Squirtle and his stupid antics…" Grumbling, I took a step forward, which was a big mistake on my part.

"..and stupid Lucar― woah! Gaahhhhhhhhhh!"


	12. Chapter 11

**Sorry this is late, again. But this update will really amaze you. The plot finally starts rolling!**

* * *

**Arc 2 - Tag, We're IT!**

**Chapter 11**

* * *

Someone or..._Something_ had completely grabbed my legs and was pulling me down a trap door that had suddenly opened up. Besides screaming my head off, I had no idea of what to do. I couldn't move my legs an inch. I tried grappling around me to find some surface my tail flame hadn't revealed, but the emptiness of darkness was all I my hands felt. And so, I just waited there, surrounded by nothing and falling down further and further to what was hopefully not my death. Was it me, or do pits seem to really like me?

It seemed like days had passed. My legs, due to the thing that was wrapped around them, eventually grew so numb that I wasn't even sure they were there any more.

More time passed, until finally, I saw a light disrupting the darkness. At first, it hurt to look at, but soon my eyes adjusted to it as it slowly grew. In no time, I was out of the darkness and was in what looked like a cave. Tentacles, which were the things wrapped around my legs, unravel themselves and let go of me. It was weird being able to feel the cold and tingly sensations that were my legs again. However, it wasn't something that I could think about for long. Without the tentacles I was free falling. Now that was enough to scare an average Pokemon, but what really worried me was my landing platform, which was a giant field of spikes around two inches long.

I began to flail around, trying to do something that would get me away from here. But I couldn't do anything. I dropped like a rock onto the spiky terrain. I could hear and _feel_ my blood splattering everywhere. Bones breaking or pushed apart by the force of my landing. I could feel my heart beating faster than I thought possible. I could move some parts of by body, and it didn't feel like anything important was hit... Amazing. I, Red Fire, had just fell into a field of spikes and lived.

I forced myself up and checked over my body. Though I couldn't feel it, my left hand had a bleeding hole in the middle of it, and my right wrist had bones prodding out where a spike had made it way up my arm by forcing apart the bones. There was a small, unimportant round cut on my muzzle where a spike had almost pierced through my head. My legs were the worst off than everything. All across my legs and feet were bloody gashes where some spikes had ripped through my skin, not going completely through, but still being very deep. Tell you the truth, I was really wondering how I was still standing.

I looked around myself, but what I saw devastated me.

"Water Gun... no..." Water Gun was lying on the spiky ground several feet away from me. He didn't nearly have as many gashes or spike piercings as I did; his hard shell took care of that, though I did notice that the shell covering his chest was slightly cracked. But this wasn't it. If this was all, then he would just be knocked out. Right underneath Water Gun, a lone spike that was noticeably somewhat larger than the rest had found its way to implant itself into Water Gun's bloody forehead. His lifeless eyes stared widely at the ground underneath him. Water Gun, my best friend I ever have had, is dead.

Tears slowly fell from my eyes as I slowly backed away from him. Further and further until I completely turned around into a full run. Doing my best to ignore the pain in my legs and avoiding the spikes on the ground, I ran until I was out of breath, which was pretty short since I was loosing oxygen from my spike wounds.

* * *

**Headmasters' Meeting Room**

Tawn was perched on one of the three chairs in their meeting room. She was thinking about their two new recruits, Water Gun and Red Fire. She chuckled pleasantly to herself. "I'm expecting a lot from those two. They have a lot of potential…"

Suddenly, the door was thrown open wildly. Delphia, who was normally extremely passive, was at the now broken door, panting and a crazed look in her eyes. "Headmaster Tawny!"

Tawny looked worriedly at the Delcatty. "Breathe, Delphia. Then tell me your news."

But Delphia shook her head and ignored the Headmaster's advice. "No Tawny, it's the new recruits. The hatch to the trapdoor for intruders was unlocked. Water Gun and Red Fire…they fell threw."

"What!"

* * *

**Intruder's Pit**

Somehow, along the way I had escaped the giant field of spikes. I found a large rock to lay down against think about what the hell just happened. It happened so fast. I couldn't really believe it…Water Gun was dead. Wiping away some tears that threatened to fall, I set myself to using my tail flame to harden the blood on my spike wounds. It was what I did to every bad cut I got. It made everything heal faster too. It was then that a thought came to me. 'Where was that stupid Lucario that lead us down here?' It wasn't even a moment later when I got my answer.

"I'm right here" I recognized his voice, which came from an area out of the range of the light from my tail flame. I could see gleaming eyes that glowed in the darkness, and somehow reflecting a determination from its bearer. I could also make out a small figure next to the eyes. The small figure began to move forward out of the darkness and became the Lucario that I knew as Jay. "Where's Water Gun?" He asked.

"What do you mean 'where's Water Gun?' You fricking led us into a damn pit! You want to know were Water Gun is? He's dead, and its all you're Mew damned fault!"

"Good" Jay smiled. He _smiled_.

"…What?" I was confused and angry. I wanted to know what the hell was going on.

"Jay, can you stop playing around and just kill him." Asked a feminine voice in the darkness. A figure, also next to the eyes staring at me, walked forward and revealed herself. It was a Gardevoir. The same one in my nightmare. "Genocides tend to take a lot of time; and we want this done before noon, remember?" G-genocide? What the freaking Mew was going on here?

"Just remember I don't enjoy doing this."

"It doesn't matter what you enjoy doing, just kill him. We have to take over this base to conquer Greener Meadow. With it, we will have more land that both the Darks and the Ghosts combined. Now kill him!"

Jay sighed and slowly walked over to me. I didn't know what to do. My adrenaline died off sometime ago and I could now feel the full effects of my wounds. Even if I could move, I would have no place to run. Jay was only a few feet away from me now. I closed my eyes, waiting for my death. Every noise died down. My Heart, for the second time today, was beating rapidly and loudly against my chest. I could almost imagine Jay cocking back some kind of weapo—

"Wait" Said a voice. I opened my eyes. It was the Pokemon with the eyes that spoke. Strange enough, it sounded…familiar. The figure with the eyes moved forward until the light of my tail flame hit him. To my surprise, it was a Charmeleon. A very familiar Charmeleon. "I know him."

"Ayden!" I gasped. Ayden was the youngest of my brothers. He really changed a lot. Before, he was so innocent and carefree. But now he looked…angry and…dark… What happened to him? That was when I noticed something really strange. "What happened to your tail flame?" His tail flame, strange enough, was completely gone. Weren't we supposed to die when that happens?

Ignoring my exclamations, the three Pokemon continued their insiders conversation. "Shouldn't that make him even more of a threat?" Asked the Gardivoir.

"No. Let me deal with him." Ayden said.

The Gardivoir stared at him for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "Fine. You do that while Jay and I go upstairs. He better be dead by the time you join us. Come on Jay." She said as she walked away with Jay close behind.

A moment or two passed with Ayden staring at me. I was really wondering whether or not he was going to kill me. So many questions filled my mind. But the most important one to me was 'How was everyone back at home'. I was separated from my family when I was a kit. I got lost and began to wander. Finally, after what seemed like ages, he spoke. "Its your fault."

"What?"

"It's your fault. It's your fault Dad died trying to find you. It's your fault Mom became depressed and killed herself. It's your fault everyone left. It's all your fault, brother; and I'm going kill you for it." With that Ayden rushed over to me, far to fast that I could match at the moment, and slashed his claws across my chest. Shortly afterward, he spat a Flamethrower at me, painfully heating my scales to intolerable degrees and burning the blood into a crispy scab. It was then that I realized he wasn't just going to kill me. First he was going to make me suffer. Ayden…the Ayden I knew really changed.

He did the same thing to me again. A third time. A Fourth time. Over and over again until I couldn't count anymore. But he didn't stick to my chest, he attacked me all over my body. My legs, my arms, my tail, even my head was completely covered in burnt scabs.

It was when I was on the floor, when I could barely move out of shock, that he decided to do the final blow. I could see it in his eyes. The bloodlust, the anger. He raised his right arm into the air and his claws took a metallic gleam. Aiming for my head, he let his claws fall. At the last moment, I was able to flip myself over and escape my incoming death. 'Twice in the same day.' I thought, 'hopefully this won't become a habit.

Because I avoided the stab, a small majority of Ayden's arm was stuck in the broken and cracked ground. I quickly picked myself up, ignoring my pain once again, and ran…again. I ran as hard a I could into the darkness, leaving my now dark brother Ayden cursing words that I didn't even know. But I didn't care, I had to get out of here. Jay and that Gardivoir got out somehow, so there had to be a exit, but where?

* * *

**I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to hate me for killing off Water Gun. But, it needed to happen. I guess you could see it as a way to show you all that, if I need to kill a main character for the good of the story, I will. And Water Gun's death was really needed. But don't worry, you'll see him again.. sorta. I'll give you a hint on how that'll happen (not like you're going to figure it out) It's something that ghost Pokemon do. Trust me you're not going to get it. ^^ Till next time folks!**


	13. End the Registration

**PLEASE READ: Sorry this is so late, I meant to have this up last Friday. Anyway, this update is very special, as any one who skipped this A/N would be very confused. I have something very important to say, but first, let's have a little Traffic check! In the last three weeks, 20 people total have read the last chapter. Out of those 20 visitors, only 4 reviewed. Now I can imagine you all sitting there, wondering, "Why in the world is he telling us this?" Well, as you all have found out or rather, for those of you who didn't review, HAVEN'T found out, the last chapter, Chapter 12 was a complete fluke. It was posted on April 1st, aka APRIL FOOLS DAY. But it was a special April fools, see after I finished the chapter (Which I made on the whim in two days), I decided to tell only those who reviewed that it was an April fools joke, well at least until the next update. So, here I am with only two things left to say; for those of you who reviewed, you comments are very appreciated. And for those who did not review... I stick my tounge in your general direction MEH :P**

**On a less serous note, what do you guys think of a WaterBlaze sprite based comic strip? I got the idea from some of the sprite comics on dA. Tell me your thoughts on the poll on my profile or in a review. Thanks! ^^**

**~Claw**

**Something Dictionary Related: Sorry, I tried out your idea, but it didn't really fit. I'll be sure to use it in the future though, it really was a good idea. ^^**

* * *

**Last time on WaterBlaze:**

_"Red, is there ever a time when you are not sarcast— whhaaaaaa!"_**  
**

_"Water Gun? What happened?" I looked over where I last heard Water Gun scream. He didn't reply. "Water Gun? This isn't some game! Argh, damn darkness, damn Squirtle and his stupid antics…" Grumbling, I took a step forward, which was a big mistake on my part._

_"..and stupid Lucar— woah! Gaahhhhhhhhhh!"_

* * *

**Arc 2 - Tag, We're IT!**

**Chapter 11: End the Registration**

* * *

My legs slipped out behind me and I fell flat on my stomach. I tried to pick myself up but, I fell right back down on my back and, sadly, my still yet-to-be-healed tail. Crying out in pain, I flipped over onto my stomach. That's when I realized I was still moving. I felt like smacking myself for not noticing the gradual descent that I was sliding high speed on.

After a few seconds, I noticed the area around me getting brighter and brighter, soon I could see the thing I was sliding on, which was a sort of giant round tunnel. Not even moments later, it got so bright I had to close my eyes, which instantly reminded me of that hospital place Water Gun and I were at yesterday. I could feel myself flying out of that tunnel-slide and crash into something. Hard. I opened my eyes and got off of what ever I crashed into, which strangely enough happened to be Water Gun.

"Yowch!" Water Gun groaned as he picked himself up. "Hey Red, next time you're flying out of a tunnel could you not smash into me?"

I snorted in amusement as I began to take in my surroundings. "I'd be my pleasure, but hopefully there won't be a next time."

We were in what looked like an underground hallway. The whole area looked pretty rectangular, with floors made of what looked like earth that were surprisingly soft to the feet. Every few meters on the walls, which were also made of earth, there were these odd purple candles that brightly lit up the area. Along with the candles, the walls also had an assortment of old wooden doors that lead to some room or another, all with different plaques that were marked with various footprints. Unlike from the walls, the ceiling had nothing on it— in fact, it's so bland it isn't worth describing.

One of the door to my right, opposite from that tunnel-slide I came down in, creaked open to reveal Jay standing with a couple pieces of paper in his hand.

"Oh, you're finally here. It took you long enough. Why didn't you take the stairs?" I quirked an eyebrow—well, what I thought was an eyebrow. I don't really think I have one since I don't have any hair. I probably do have one actually, of course you'd really have to look closely to even see it moving…which would be really, really weird and awkward. Then again, I'm an awkward kind of guy.

"Stairs?" Water Gun asked with an annoyed look. I guess he wouldn't be too happy to know he could have avoided being slammed into.

"Yeah, stairs. You know, the ones right next to the slide, lit by candles and everything?" I groaned; of course, we, being the stupid ones, completely missed seeing any source of light in the mist of complete darkness. Whoa…that sounded really profound…I wonder if I can relate it to food somehow…

"So where exactly are we?" Water Gun looked around himself curiously. "Some kind of underground road or something?" Jay chuckled for a moment, apparently amused by Water Gun's question.

"You could say that, this is the Main hallway, it connects all of the major areas around the Base and branches out to tunnels that are roads. But, that doesn't matter right now. Head over to that door over there; it's our Registration room, and where I'll officially register you." Jay said while pointing past a couple doors to an odd door on the other side of the hallway—well, odd compared to all of the other doors. It was made out of that old wood like all of the other doors, but it also had a tinted window. Under the window frame, there was a egg shaped carving similar to the shape of this Rescue Base, though this one had weird ribbon shaped wings. "I'll be back with you; I need to fill out some more papers." and with that he went back inside that door.

It wasn't long before that Lucario came back out of that door and headed towards us. Sighing, he took out a green and white egg shaped key and unlocked the door.

"I finished filling out all of the forms except one. To finish it, I need to add your team name. I hope you guys thought of one like I asked." Jay sat down on a giant brown chair behind an equally giant desk as me and Water Gun shared worried looks. I guess nether of us were listening when he said that.

"Just by looking at your your faces I can tell that you don't have a name yet." Jay sighed as we chuckled nervously, "This would go by a whole lot faster if we didn't have to spend time figuring out a team name for you two."

"Well," began Water gun, "what kind of name do you suggest? I mean, what types of names do rescue teams normally pick out?"

Jay sighed behind his giant desk. Now that I think of it, I haven't really told you what this room looks like have I? Well, the room itself is pretty big since it can fit that giant desk and chair, though, it was a little hard to tell because of the few sheets of paper on the ground. Like the hallway, the walls in this room, and most likely all of the rooms, were made of that soil- except for the wall behind the desk, which was the most disquingusing feature in the room. Coming out of the wall, almost like a statue, was a big white and green egg with creamish pink ribbons, just like that key Jay had. Really, what is it with this place and eggs? The building is an egg, the door has an egg, the wall has an egg, heck, they even have egg keys. Aside from the egg obsession, this place wasn't too bad- even if it's underground.

"When you pick out a team name," Jay began with a sigh, "you want it to have something that relates you two together. It should sound catchy so other Pokemon will remember it; and you should try to pick one that isn't cliché or one that sounds corny and stupid- like Team Ultimate, Team Explorers, Team Happiness, or Team Pokemon. Thats all I'm helping you with, figure everything else out on you're own."

"Those team names that you listed," I pointed out as I noticed something, "They wouldn't happen to be actual names of teams you have, would they?" Jay sighed deeply. He never answered my question, but what I did ask he answered with few words. Water Gun and I huddled together to think of a team name.

"Ok, Red. So Jay said that our team name should relate us together, right? So whats something that we both have?"

"Um, we both have feet..." Water Gun gave me an exasperated look.

"Really, Red Fire?" he deadpanned, "Team Feet sounds stupid and weird. Can't you be a little bit creative?"

"It is creative! I'm sure as Mew that no one ever thought of that before! If you don't like that, how'bout Team Loners? That fits us pretty good doesn't it?"

Water Gun rolled his eyes at me. "I don't think this is working out too well. Let's try something else. We can always name ourselves after a legendary. Team Kygore? Team Mew?" Now it was my turn to roll me eyes.

"Team Mew? Sure maybe mine was stupid, but at least it wasn't stupid and cornyーprobably cliché too! If this is all we can think of we might as well name ourselves something stupid like Team Rocket or something."

"Hey! That's it!"

"...You aren't really gonnaー"

"No, of course not! We can do something based on our element type!" Water Gun exclaimed, "How's Team Aqua sound?"

"No! If were going to do something about our types it has to be fire related. Maybe...Team Magma?"

Water Gun sighed. "Why don't we just combine them then?"

"Team Aqua-Magma?" I offered. That quickly brought a look of disgust on my face. That just sounded too damn horrible.

"Too Stupid." We both said at the same time. Feelings of disgust are often mutual.

"What about Team Fire Water?" I asked. Water Gun shook his head.

"Team Flaming Waterfalls?" He offered.

"Nah. Team Blazing Geysers?". Water Gun deadpanned and I felt like slapping myself after I said that. That sounded stupid and corny.

"Hey, I got it" Water Gun exclaimed. I patiently waited for Water Gun to calm down from his excitement. Too bad patience isn't one of my strong points. Fortunately, for him at least, before i was able to lash out, he finally spoke up. "Okay. Team Water Blaze! How's that sound?" I smirked a little. It was pretty good. It did sound kinda stupid, but it flowed really well...

"Sure, that sounds good for now. A little stupid, but we can always change it later I guess..." Water Gun smiled widely before turning back towards Jay.

"Okay, that's it!" Water Gun exclaimed, "we have our team name!" Jay nodded.

"Okay, I'll write it down. One 'Team Feet' will be active and ready for duty..."

"Team Feet?"

"WHAT?"

Jay chuckled. "I'll be registering you two as 'Team Water Blaze', don't worry." Jay took out a brush and began drawing footprints in the little boxes on the top of the page until he stopped short. "There's a little problem; there isn't enough room for the characters separately. If you want to keep it as 'Water Blaze' I can take away the space in the middle; it will fit that way."

"So instead of it being 'Water Blaze' it will be 'WaterBlaze'?" asked Water Gun. Jay nodded.

"Exactly. Is that okay?"

Water Gun and I shared a glance at each other. "Sure," I said, "It still sounds the same." Jay nodded again and finished writing. After he finished, he added the paper to the small stack next to him.

"Great! I finished the paperwork!" he sighed, "Now for the last part. This will officially register you as a Team." out of the desk he pulled out a miniature pink and white egg with ears. A Wigglytuff. What the Mew was this supposed to do? "You might want to cover your ears, Wiggy here can get pretty loud." Water Gun covered his ears, but I folded my arms with an unbelieving expression. "Red Fire, you should cover your ears, it's pretty painful to listen too..."

"Sure…" I said rolling my eyes.

Jay shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself." and with that he pressed the head of the Wigglytuff and quickly covered his ears.

**"YYYYOOOMMMTTTAAAHHH!"**


	14. It's Official:

**Wait! What's this? An... An update? Yes, that's right everyone. After three and a half weeks, I have finally updated. So much for updating every Friday, huh? This chapter was really hard to write; writers block wise and also not enough time because of end of the year schoolwork wise. But fortunately, there are 13 more days left in school! Anyway, I have some news on the bottom I'd like you to read, but let's get to the chapter first.**

**But wait! Before you go on, I'd like to give a shout out to Souldragon! She's making a really awesome fanfic about a Lucario and a girl, and it's really good. So stop by sometime and read it!**

* * *

**Arc 2- Tag, We're IT**

**Chapter 12: It's Official:**

* * *

Everything was shaking. Papers were flying through the air; the walls were shaking, the desk actually rattling against the ground, the Wigglytuff figurine was vibrating against the floor as if it were having a kind of seizure, and to me, everything looked like it was jumping up and down.

Eventually the shaking settled down and I was finally able to make sense of everything around me. I was lying on the ground, I realized, just like Water Gun. Though unlike him, I was wishing that I had listened to Jay's advice of covering my ears, which were ringing. Loudly. That dreaded Wigglytuff figurine was lying in between the two of us and completely in one piece. I planned to fix that.

I picked myself up, despite my throbbing headache and shot nerves, and walked over to the tiny Wigglytuff. I brought up my fist as I smiled at the idea of the destruction of my temporary bane of existence. Making sure I would do as much damage as possible, I cocked back my fist a little more and then, I released...

"Red Fire, no!" Jay, who was laying flat down on the desk, jumped up and reached out as if to stop me, but it, was too late. My fist was gliding down and a sadistic grin was etched upon my face. And then... my fist smashed into the Wigglytuff figurine's face at full force.

To my surprise and displeasure, the Wigglytuff didn't break into a million pieces. In fact, the only thing that probably did break was my throbbing fist. I stared at my fist as a seemingly yearlong hushed silence covered the room. All too soon, the silence was broken, by the Wigglytuff figurine no less. It was rattling against the ground, similar too the way it had when it "yomtah'd" before. I grinned a little; I guess I did break it. No more "yomtah's" from that stup-

"**YOMTAH**!" We all jumped and shouted in surprise as the ground shook fiercely for a small moment. ...Heh-heh, guess I didn't completely incompletely break it.

"**YOMTAH**! **YOMTAH**! **YOMTAH**! **YOMTAH**!" the Wigglytuff figurine played it over and over like a broken record, causing ear-splitting tremors that erratically shook the whole floor.

After a while (when the walls started to crack and after we had begun grappling the desk for our dear lives), Jay, using the table as support, carefully walked over to the figurine. Muttering something about taking energy, he raised his paw into the air. I watched in amazement as his fist took on a bright and shiny white aura. He then preceded to sweep his hand over the Wigglytuff, letting only the white aura touch it. It didn't do anything at first, but after a moment, the sound coming from the figurine began to slowly die down until it completely stopped.

"Whoa!" shouted Water Gun with his eyes lit up; guess he was as amazed as I was. "How'd you do that?"

Jay turned around to face us, well really just to face me. His face was back in that annoyed and hateful glare that he had earlier. Funny, it almost seemed he was starting to like me. "That was False Swipe. You're lucky it worked, Charmander, we can easily charge you for destruction of property and endangerment of others. Honestly, if this is how you will act, I feel there will be a need to reconsider your membership." I gulped, whenever anyone started to yell at me with long words, I'd know that I was in trouble one way or another.

"Oh, don't be so tense." said a new voice. We looked behind Jay and at the door where Tawny stood with a birdish smile on her face. "Nobody got hurt, and nothing was destroyed besides Wiggy, right?"

"But, it could hav-!"

"But, it didn't, did it?" Tawny interrupted. Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere, Jay folded his arms and grunted as he looked away in disinterest. Tawny walked further into the room until she was in front of us, which meant she was also standing next to Jay.

"Why did you come?" Jay asked.

"Well, imagine my surprise when the whole Rescue Base began shaking, AFTER the official registration yomtah. When I began hearing yomtah in short Intervals, I put two and two together and figured out that must've been malfunctioning. Besides, should I really have an excuse to see how you're doing my part of the job?"

"Whatever…" Jay mumbled.

"So," she began, "did Jay give you two your rescue emblems yet?" Our curious looks seemed to answer her question since she smiled knowingly. "Okay then! Jay, I'll take over from here, I'm sure you have other things you'd like to do." without a word, Jay sighed and walked out of the room, closing the open door behind him.

Tawny walked over to the giant desk and began opening a couple of the drawers. I absently wondered how she could do that with wings. She gave up looking through the drawers and reached for the bottom of the desk, which made her tail feathers the only visible part of her to us. When she came up again, she brought up a medium sized plain treasure chest with her. "Okay! I have every thing you'll need right here, so I'll give you both the basic run down of each item and it's use." she said as she opened the chest. She then began taking out various items from the chest and setting them on the desk. After everything was taken out of the chest and Water Gun and I were standing in front of the desk once again, Tawny began to tell us about the items.

"This here," she began, pointing at yet another ivy green and white egg with yellowish ribbons, "is a general Ivy Town Rescue Base emblem. If you're wondering, green and white are our Rescue Base's colors. If you ever want to, you can get a custom-made emblem to fit you're team. Besides being fashion statements, these emblems are extremely helpful to use rescuers in a lot of ways, but the most important is that they get in and out of dungeons.

"Now this," Tawny said as she set down our new rescue emblems and picked up a brownish messenger bag that had a smaller green and white emblem pinned on the flap. I noticed that there was another bag just like it on the table. It probably meant that there was one for both of us. "is one of your treasure bags. You can put whatever you want in it. Use it to stock up for a mission or for temporary storage in a dungeon."

She handed our new emblems and treasure bags to us. As we put on the treasure bags and placed our emblems in one of their many pockets, Tawny picked up two more items. "This," she said as she indicated to a rolled up scroll, "is your Wonder Map. It shows all of the mystery dungeons in Ivy Town's general vicinity; and this," this time indicating to a stone emblem that was slightly bigger than our normal ones. There was a white flag displaying a green and white emblem right next to the statuette "is a Rescue statuette, which you'll put on your house or team base to let others know that you are a rescue team" Seeing Water Gun reach for the map, I grabbed the statuette and its flag and put it in my treasure bag.

"…and before I forget; along with all of this, you've gained an account at Meowth's Bank, a storage area at Mamma Kangashkan's Storage, and a subscription for Delibird's Mail for your newsletters and for missions that personally request you."

"Wow" Water Gun took the words right out of mouth. It was just so much to take in at once. We were actually a Rescue Team. Mind you, it wasn't like I wanted to be a rescuer, there just isn't anything better to do and, just in case there was something true in that dream I had, becoming a rescuer would be a great means for self-preservation. Water Gun had nothing to do with it at all. Nope! Not. At. All.

"Okay!" Tawny slid back into the giant seat and made an odd chirping noise before continuing. "Now that your team—"

"WaterBlaze;" interrupted Water Gun, "we're Team WaterBlaze."

"That's a nice team name." Tawny smiled sweetly at us. "Okay, now that Team WaterBlaze is registered, you'll be IT for a while—"

"It?" Water Gun interrupted again. "You mean like tag? We're going to play games?" Water Gun can be such an idiot sometimes. IT obviously stands for Interrogation and Torture. Looks like being a rescuer will be fun after all. Or...does that mean _we_ will be interrogated and tortured?

Tawny chuckled slightly as she slowly shook her head in amusement. "No Wafer Gun. IT stands for 'in training'. After a Rescue Team is registered, we put them in our training program. We wouldn't dare put a rookie team in a dungeon straight of the bat without them knowing what to do. So then follow me and I'll introduce you two to the Pokemon in charge of our dojo and our IT program: Sensei Hariyama!"

"Wah? Here? As in, right now?" Asked Water Gun.

"Of course," replied Tawny. "Why wouldn't we?"

"It's just...Well, this is happening so fast. We just became a Rescue Team!" I had to agree with him. So much was happening all at once, well that and my treasure bag was getting heavy.

"That's what they all say" Tawny said with her birdish grin.

After leaving the registration room, Water Gun and I followed Tawny down the Main Hall way. It was a short walk, but we talked about a lot of things— most of which I doubt I'll remember. One of the things I do remember though is info about that training program. In that training program, we had to complete a total of 10 missions before we could be an 'actual' Rescue Team. 1 exploration, 4 rescues, 4 escorts, and 1 outlaw capture. Sounds easy, right? Well, if you've ever lived in the wild, you'll learn that everything that sounds easy has a catch; and this is it: if we ever fail a mission, the number of missions in that mission category is doubled. Don't worry, I didn't get it at first either.

Here's the example Tawny gave us: "Let's say you have 2 more rescues to complete before you finish the training course; you take one mission but end up failing it. Now you have 4 more rescue missions that you have to complete. This repeats over and over again until you actually complete the course." …wow, I can't believe I was actually able to remember that word for word… Anyway, after that she started talking about a bunch of other stuff like how "you can never fail an exploration" or how "most recruits fail their first outlaw mission", but I didn't really pay attention to most of it.

After Tawny finished talking, we finally arrived to the place she called the "dojo". Great timing on her part.

* * *

**Ivy Town Dojo**

The dojo… it was pretty creepy. There weren't many of those weird purple candles around, making the place almost as dark as that area with the slide. Despite the darkness, I could tell that the room was pretty spacious, mostly because anything that made a sound echoed. I felt like something was there, watching us. But, that was probably just that paranoia I get when I'm in dark, creepy places that I've never been to.

Tawny continued to lead us pretty far into the darkness before she stopped. She stood there for a few moments, simply staring off into the darkness. When Water Gun and I were about to question her, we were cut off by a dark chuckle.

"Red Fire, did you hear that? I could've sworn I heard someone laughing… And what's wrong with Tawny?"

"How would I know? I can barely see anything around me."

"Mwa heh heh... Welcome, I've been...waiting for you." A deep voice said. About five feet above us, I could see gleaming eyes peering down on us. Water Gun and I were both looking apprehensively at them as a set of sharp teeth grinned sadistically at us.

Suddenly, two small bonfires were lit at the end of one of the walls. Shortly after, lines of candles at the top of the room were flared, which practically lit up the whole room. Finally, a gigantic bond fire, bigger and in the middle of those other two bond fires, was brought ablaze, giving me comforting waves of heat. I took a quick look around before giving that thing with the creepy smile and deep voice my full attention. There wasn't much around; dirt ground, sod walls, and one of those green and white eggs with ribbons above the big Bon fire.

I took a look at the Pokemon that was in front of me. It was big, obviously, and round. To tell you the truth, he looked like he was wearing a pansy bellossm's dress and decided that he would wear giant matching amber gloves. And his face... Was completely normal, asides from the freakish smile on his face.

"I am Sensei Hariyama! My dojo, I welcome you to her!" He proclaimed in a horribly happy voice.

"It's nice to se you again Sensei," Tawny said with a feint smile on her face. "These are the new recruits: Team Water Blaze!"

"No, it's WaterBlaze." corrected Water Gun.

"That's… what I said…" Tawny answered confusedly.

"Never mind..." I sighed. I have a feeling that this is going to be a common mistake.

"Ah, Team WaterBlaze! I welcome her!" the Hariyama bellowed. He had a sorta deep voice, but at the same time, it got strangely high. And his face was practically gleaming with joy. Was this seriously the Pokemon that scared us?

"But..." began Water Gun in confusion. "We're guys..." The weird giant Pokemon continued, ignoring Water Gun— or maybe he just didn't hear because he was so high up?

"The signal, as soon as we heard her, we began preparing for ceremony. But alas! We no have enough supplies for her! Today," —a this point the Hariyama was scooting us forward, towards the fire and away from Tawny and the exit.—"you meet other teams, but the ceremony, tomorrow we will do her!" like Rai, it looks like this Sensei guy talks weird— not that that's a bad thing, of course! —being weird is okay! —Every Pokemon is different! Eh heh heh... Man, I really hope she was not listening…

"Other teams?" I questioned. I guess I never really thought there would be other teams doing this while we were. It made sense I guess.

"That's right," said Tawny. "There will be other teams participating in this while you are. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that on the way here." She looked at me with her birdish grin as I mumbled something incoherent to even me. I had a feeling that she knows that I wasn't paying attention to her while she was talking. Well, if she didn't then she sure as Mew knows now; stupid mind readers…—not that they're stupid or anything!

"Yes, yes! The other teams! You shall meet them!" the Hariyama said ecstatically. No sooner than after he said that, did we start to hear voices and see silhouettes around the two bond fires.

"Humph. _the'yre _the new recruits? They don't look tough to me." An annoying scratchy voice said. Who ever it was they were already on my list to beat up. The silhouette of this voice walked towards us to reveal himself as a Nidorino. Yup, I'm definitely going to beat him up; I can't stand those things.

"That not saying much, coming from you." another silhouette, from the other bon fire, moved towards us. I can't say I recognized the Pokemon. She looked vaguely like that zangoose thong, with having long claws and all. The only thing different was the darkish purple fur, shorter and skinnier body, and what looked like a... feather... attached to her head?

"What was that?" the Nidorino snapped back.

"Yeah! What was that?" Two voices, near the nidorino chimed together. Two silhouettes came out and revealed themselves as a mankey and a sparrow. Oh great; the prick has a posse.

"I said: 'That isn't much—" the strange Pokemon said before being cut off by a teddiursa that revealed herself from the fire.

"Diyari, no! Skid isn't worth it!" I guess the weird Pokemon's name was Diyari, and the prick's was Skid. Good to know.

"Why don't we just focus on new team?" Of all things, a poliwag stepped out of his silhouette and stood next to the teddiursa. I felt sorry for him. Being on a team with all girls kinda sucked.

"Yeah, that's right! The newbies" the Nidorino, Skid, said before walking down to us, of course, with his posse of a team following him close behind. The other team, following the weird Pokemon, made their way down to us as well. "So, what'd you name yourselves anyway? Team Losers?" the Nidorino snickered as if he had just said the funniest thing in the world. I wonder if he would think my fist in his face would be funny.

"No," Water Gun replied in irritation. I guess he was as annoyed by the prick as I was. "We're Team WaterBlaze."

"Team WaterBlaze? Eh heh heh ha! Wow that sounds so stupid!" Oh Mew! Even his laugh was annoying! Oh so help me, if I don't destroy something soon... You know what? I don't care any more. It's jerk mode time, and for the record, I don't dance.

"Erg... I kinda like it…" the sparrow said ashamedly.

The Nidorino turned to his posse member and stared at him blankly.

"Shut up." he said. Then, turning around to face us again, he continued his hilarious insults. "So, why did you wimpy lose—" Unfortunately, the 'poor' poison Pokemon wasn't able to finish his sentence. Why? Because I punched him straight on the snout! Right on his sniffer! The prick was flipped over, unconscious, two feet away from everyone, and with his head was lying in a small puddle of blood. I smirked at him and looked at my blood-covered fist. Taking a long whiff, I sighed deeply. That felt really good.

It was then that I realized something. I just punched the daylights out of someone, and nobody was saying anything, they were just... Looking at me blankly. "Isn't anyone going to um...?" I really did not know what to say.

Tawny and the other team just shrugged their shoulders and said simultaneously, "He had it coming to him." I smirked widely, I like this place already.

* * *

**And there we have it! Hoped you liked it. It was longer than the normal length of my chapters, so I hope that makes up for the wait.**

**Now, about that news I was talking about. Well, first I'd like to announce I have officially started the WaterBlaze comic. I'm still going to have to modify a lot of sprites to accommodate all of the places I've made up. You be surprised by what just adding trees to a scene does. What was once a mountainous, hilly landscape, is now a Gigantic forest. Anyway, I'm just going to do Arc 1 on it for now and start arc two once I finish it here. Now, you might be wondering, where is it? Heh, it's on my Deviant Art. Just click on the homepage link on my profile. And that brings us to our next subject. I'll be drawing different pictures of characters and objects on deviant art, so check it frequently. Thats all I have to say for now, so see yah next time.**


	15. We're Team WaterBlaze

CLAW IS BACK! ROAR! ...Hi all! Update time!

**IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! **Okay before we begin, I'd like to do something. I got permission from The Heck to sorta copy his idea of asking questions that could somewhat change the plot of the story. I won't do this for every chapter, but I will do this for let's say… the next three chapters. This is how it works: I ask a question, and you reply in a review or pm. I'm also doing it as a poll so my readers that do not have an account can answer as well.

Now, this is the first question:

_Would you rather join the lightning, or wait out the storm?_

Oh, and just as a note, I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, so sorry if it skips around too much.

* * *

**Arc 2: Tag! We're IT!**

**Chapter 13~ We're Team WaterBlaze!**

* * *

**Ivy Town Dojo**

"So," Began the odd Pokemon named Diyari, "Your Team WaterBlaze?"

"Yup!" Water Gun replied. "You're on a rescue team too, right? What's it called?" after Water Gun asked that question, Diyari, the Teddyursa, and the Poliwag brightened and grinned widely.

All three of them jumped into what looked like a 'triangle formation' with Diyari as it's point. They all saluted, even the Poliwag who used his tail. "Diyari; leader!" Obviously, the odd Pokemon said.

"Fawn; the team's worrywart!" The Teddyursa, who was left of Diyari, was next to shout her title.

"Poliwag; the only guy on the team!" (don't even get me started wondering how the poliwag could talk without a mouth) Yeah, that happens. Sometimes parents are really lazy and don't bother to name their kits. Their species name is the only name the kits have. The kits might make up a name for themselves, but why give up the only thing you've been called by in your life?

"Guys!" Diyari turned around to face the rest of her team angrily. "That wasn't how we practiced it!"

"It was still good though! —And it surprised them! That's what we were going for right?" the Teddyursa smiled brightly. Facepalming herself, Diyari groaned in frustration.

"It was supposed to be profestional though..." She sighed.

"It was as wonderful introduction," Tawny said nicely, "It... fit you and... and you presented it well." all three of them stood erect and saluted again, this time to Tawny, not to us.

"Thank you, Headmaster Tawny!" they shouted in unison. Headmaster Tawny? Is that what we're supposed to call them? I knew that the Headmasters were- well, the Headmasters; but, I didn't know it was some sort of weird honorific.

"Hold on," I said, noticing something. "You guys never answered the question. Your Team name? You never told us it in your... Introduction...?"

"Oh yeah. Right. Well, we're Team Possibility; where chance always has it's say." My absent eyebrow twitched at that. That name was really corny. And I really don't think you should give chance a say. Why you might ask? Need I remind you of why I'm even in this rescue team mess in the first place?

"Don't poke mah...butt..." We all turned to look couriously at that Nidorino guy, who was talking in his sleep. I snickered when I saw him. He was still knocked out like a snorlax with his teammates trying to prod him awake.

"I suppose Skid has the right idea— or rather, Red Fire gave him the right idea..." Diyari's team snickered at Tawny's words. Looks like they didn't like the annoying prick either. "You can't tell because we're underground, but the sun already started setting. They should all probably head home now, right Sensei Hariyama?"

"Yes, yes! Home, they should go to her! Then come back early tomorrow for ritual!" The Hairymama guy was way to happy-go-lucky for my comfort. I never thought I'd ever come across a fighting type pansy. I mean, almost all of the fighting types are weird in some way or another, but becoming a pansy? That's more than weird. What's even weirder is that this guy's a guy...

Anyway, back on topic. I can't believe that it's dusk already. Were we really down underground that long? Really, what did we do the whole day? Eat, walk to the Rescue Base, wait for Headmaster Jay, get our rescue items, go to the dojo... and here we are. Man, does time fly!

After a couple of entertaining minutes of Skid's posse trying to figure out how to drag Skid out of the dojo, we waved goodbye to Headmaster Tawny and Diyari's team. After we entered into the town, Water Gun and I began heading back to hom— his place.

Anyway, the walk back was unusually quiet— or at least I thought it was, we've only done this going back thing around three times. I think it might've been because the business area was a lot quieter than before. Either way, I really hope we get back fast; these stupid Treasure Bags are getting really heavy.

"So...we're a Rescue Team now." I said, trying to pass the time.

"Yup!" Water Gun agreed "Hey Red, I've been thinking..."

"Well that can't be a good thing." I smirked when Water Gun threw me an angry face.

"No, Red Fire, I'm serious. You know how the Sneasel's team had three members?" Sneasel? So that's what that weird Pokemon was. Good to know, I guess.

"Yeah, so? That prick's team did too."

"That's what I'm talking about. Every team we've come across so far has had three members." He's right. Even the Rescue Base has three Headmasters. So, what does this mean...? That this place has a weirdo obsession of eggs and the number three. "I think we're gonna have to get a third member sooner or later."

"Already?" Can't say I was looking forward to dealing with more people. Don't know if you noticed, but I'm not really much of a social type. "We just started this stupid team."

Water Gun rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess your right. Let's take things one step at a time. But we are going to get more members some day."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." I retorted in response. Really, what difference did it make? Having more members didn't really DO anything. All it meant was having more annoying Pokemon to deal with, more time to waste, and more mouths to... feed.

**FEED**

**EAT**

**FOOD**

"I'M HUNGRY!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, startling Water Gun and almost making him trip over. I can't believe I just noticed! The last time I ate was when we had that tiny breakfast this morning! This **_MORNING_**. And before that we hadn't eaten for two whole days! How am I still alive? Normally I can't even last an hour without food. What's happening to me?

"Is that some kind of alarm you have or something?" he asked, I could tell his ears were still ringing by the way he was griping his head. Hold on... I just noticed something… where are his ears? A better question, where are MY ears? We just had...heads.

"No... Hey Water Gun... Where are our ears?"

Said Squirtle looked at me curiously in wonder for a moment before shaking his head. "I… You're crazy. Now about food..." ooh! Yes, a great subject too stray in! Food! I can't wait to eat. Precious berries! Lots and lots of delicious, tasty, juicy berries! Sweet berries, and bitter berries, and sour berries, and dry berries, and my favorite: spicy berries! I can't wait to grab them and hold them and bite them and taste them and— "We don't have any." ...No precious?

My world just literally broke down*. I didn't know what to do. It was like... Everything I knew was taken away from me. Nothing existed. The world around me just shattered. "Red? Hey, are you ok?" I heard his voice... it was so far away... It was then, that my stomach rumbled.

"MUST FIND PRECIOUS!" I yelled and ran full-speed forward, leaving Water Gun in the dust i managed to kick up despite the damp grassy soil. I had a one-track mind, and right now it was set on finding food. I was a little hungry.

* * *

**A Greener Meadow forest**

"Come one, come all!" an Oddish shouted. He was in a large clearing with a lot of bushes, though one wouldn't be able to tell. Pokemon from all over were swarming into the area, attracted by his yelling. Just behind him was a giant rowdy crowd. "Your fears will disappear! No longer do we need to fear the terrorist of the grassland! Though he has returned, we have captured him for all who seek revenge! Young and old alike! You can either watch the show or join in!"

A courious Pikachu walked towards the crowd, intrigued by the all of the commotion. "Excuse me, Oddish? What's going on?" the Oddish, who had dis castrated himself with trying to see what was going on in the crowd, didn't notice the Pikachu's presence until she had done more prodding.

"Huh? Oh, sorry miss. You wanna take a wack at the terrorist?"

"The what?"

"The terrorist of the grassland." the Oddish anwsered, but seeing that the Pikachu was still confused he decided to elaborate. "You know, that mean jerk that disspeared during the earthquake a couple days ago? He was mean to everyone...?"

"Never heard of him." the Pikachu stated.

"You must be new around here, everyone knows the terrorist and has suffered."

"Oh," The Pikachu said, laughing at herself. "That explains it I guess; I've only been around for a couple weeks. So, if you all don't like this guy, why are you guys here?"

The Oddish puffed up his tiny blue chest and grinned proudly. "I was one of the ones who captured him! You know, he was pretty out of it so it was pretty easy to hold him down and rap him up. We brought him here so everyone can get back at him. He hurt lots of Pokemon here you know."

"What! That's soo mean!" she exclaimed, looking over at the crowd, who were mostly grass types, throwing a variety of leaves, vines, and other basic grass type moves.

"Yeah, he was." he agreed. "That's why-"

"No!" She interrupted, her head shaking with vigor. "Not him, you guys! You can't just go up to a Pokemon and capture it! Do you realize how cruel that is?**"

"But he was cruel to us-!"

"So? Your being way crueler to him! I think your being just like him by doing this."

"I don't care what you think miss." The Oddish retorted angrily. "The Terrorist has been mean to all of us. We're just making it right!"

The Pikachu looked at the Oddish with a bad taste in her mouth. "Revenge in the name of justice, huh? Well, I don't care what you say you are doing. It is what it is and I'm going to stop it!" The Pikachu stomped off to the crowd, leaving the Oddish to roll his eyes and resume shouting his head off to the passerbys'

She weaved in and out of the crowd, avoiding the occasional wayward grass type attacks, until finally, she had made it to the front lines of the assault.

What she saw disappointed her for a second. When she had imagined the 'terrorist' she imagined a poor, defenseless Pokemon wrapped up and in great pain, and completely repentant and begging for mercy. But what she saw? Well… it was a Charmander. He looked more annoyed by the grass attacks than hurt by them. He was tied up though, but the Razor Leaf attackes weren't really helping in keeping the long vine intact. In fact, he looked like he could break out of the confining things any moment now. The Charmander didn't even look half sane either. He was muttering something completely incoherent and there was…there was...? "Eww! Eww! Oh, my gosh! That's dirt! He's eating dirt! Eww!" Yes… that was right. In his mouth was a giant mouthful of dirt. You could even see blades of grass sticking out of his mouth and the occasional crumb of dirt fall out of his mouth as he chewed. All around him were little holes and pockets in the ground where he had chomped on the ground.

To say the least, the Pikachu was very disgusted by the sight, but, nevertheless, a Pokemon was a Pokemon, no matter what degree of sanity it lacked; and this one needed help… in more ways than one. But for now…

"Yaaaa…YAHHHHH!" the crowd stopped it's attacks, completely speechless by the large lightning bolt that was released from into the sky from the Pikachu.

"Woah. That. Was cool." A young Bedew said, voicing the crowd's thoughts.

"Stop it!" the Pikachu shouted, the Pokemon focused more on her. "I can't believe you all! This Charmander might've done something against you, but that should give no reason to take revenge! Whatever happened to forgiveness? Being a Pokemon of morals? Your attacking a defenseless Pokemon! I mean sure, he might be a fire type and you most likely aren't doing any damage… but that doesn't matter! By attacking Him you're becoming exactly what you hate!"

There was a long period of silence. The Pikachu absently wondered if they were astonished by the speech or still amazed by the Thunderbolt attack to even register that she had talked.

"The Pikachu's right!" a Sunflora in the middle of the crowd had shouted. The Pikachu smiled pleasantly as the Sunflora pushed his way to the front of the crowd. It looked like there were some Pokemon that still had some decency left. "Let's throw rocks at him!"

"Yeah!" the Pikachu smile took no time to fall in to a frown of horror. She wasn't sure if she was more surprised or appalled by the chorus of cheers from the crowd.

"This is for burning my flower skirt, you jerk!" a Bellossom shouted before tossing a medium sized rock at him. The Pikachu squarely noted how the rock missed it's target by several meters.

"You shaved my son's fur off!" a Lincoon yelled. Unlike the grass Pokemon, the Lincoon had actually known the move Rock Throw. The Pikachu winced slighty as her move hit it's mark.

"This is for eating my family's food supply last winter! We had nothing to eat for a whole month!" A male Weepingbell shouted and threw two rocks with his leafy arms. Only one made it to the Charmander, and though it only hit his tail, it seemed to be the last straw for him.

Still remaining cocooned in those mostly severed vines for some odd reason, he yelled the word 'precious' and spat out a gigantic torch of fire that nearly skinned Pikachu. The crowd of Pokemon, on the other hand weren't as lucky to be spared. The whole front two lines of the crowd had been hit by the flames. There was chaos everywhere. Pokemon were running around screaming, panicking. Some had even lost sense of their surroundings and began bumping into other Pokemon, which didn't exactly help stop the fire from spreading.

The Pikachu, who had managed to escape the chaos, looked at all of them smugly. Sure it might not have been justice, but it sure felt good to be right. They should have stopped hurting the 'terrorist' when she said so. But her smug look past after a few moments. It wasn't good to think like that. Positive thoughts, she told herself. Don't think about negative things. Within seconds her face returned to that naive look she had when she originally consulted the Oddish.

The Pikachu looked back to the Charmander that everyone was referring to as "The Terrorist". He didn't look that bad- a little delusional, yes, but not a terrorist. She slowly approached him. Though he did stop torching everyone, the was no idea what he would do if he got riled up. As the Charmander calmly took another bite of-Eww- the ground, she noted that everyone in the crowd, save some charred grass types, was completely gone. No… it wasn't that they left, she could see many hiding behind trees, bushes and rocks. They were hiding and watching. She smiled to herself, she was going to be an example.

By the time she was in touching distance of the Charmander, he had already finished chewing his..meal and was now swallowing it... Ew.

"Hi ya, Charmander. Like, sorry for what that mob did to you. Your not hurt. are you?" the Charmander didn't reply; how could he when he had taken another bite out of the ground? Though, this bite was different from the rest. Not only did he bite off more than he could even try to move his mouth, but there was a large amount of pink wiggly things sticking out of the dirt in his mouth. The Charmander, noticing something was wiggling in his mouth made a face of disgust and spat out the dirt… all over the Pikachu.

"EEWWWW!" It was then that the Charmander noticed the Pikachu, who was frozen in disgust. The Pikachu was in a mix of emotions: disgust, disbelief, and not to mention a little creeped out by the blank stare that the Charmander was giving her. Her fear only increased as he slowly licked his lips. She was caught off guard though, when he sniffed her. He wasn't feral was he? Some Pokemon did go back to their wild ways...

"Ahhh!" She cried out. That Charmander! He bit her! She looked at her arm, where the Charmander was still clamped to her. "Get off my arm! Get off! Get off! Get off! Get off! Get off!" she yelled, swinging her arm wildly in the air. Finally, he released his maw as he flew into the air. She narrowly dodged the torrent of flames that erupted from his mouth as he did so.

Scrambling up to her feet, she made sure to clear some distance from the crazy Charmander. It was then that she heard laughing. She looked around her to see everyone that was in the mob out of their hiding places. They were laughing at her. When she looked at several Pokemon that were smirking at her, she blushed out of embarrassment and frustration.

"Oh, laugh it up!" she shouted as she embarrassedly shuffled away.

"Haha! Told ya Mousey!" she heard the Oddish shout at her. "The Terrorist could never be a 'poor' Pokemon! He's a jerk to the core! You should listen next time. Heh!"

"Totally uncool…" she mumbled to herself.

* * *

**? **

Somewhere in a small cave, two figures were illuminated by several candles placed on various rocks. The first figure was the biggest. He was a pink reptilian Pokemon with an odd blank stare that suggested he was somewhat absent from the world around him. The most noticeable thing about him was the giant shell that he wore as a crown and the odd red and white clown choker necklace around his neck.

The other figure was much smaller than the first, and far less detailed. It was grey and it had an odd resemblance to a limbless pig, since it itself didn't have any appendages besides its long coiled tail that it stood on. There was a relatively large pink pearl on it's head, which was what the other figure was staring at- or rather, into.

"A great day for celebration, The rodent, now, is in play! But I do wonder, deeply wonder: What other friends are at bay?" the first figure slowly rhymed as he stared into the pearl.

"Master..." the second figure whined as he looked up to the other figure. "Are you sure your not under a rhyme curse?"

The first figure, still staring into the orb unblinkingly, slowly replied. "Friend, O dearest friend, This rhyming makes it's dues. Though it might never end, It is a tool that I must use."

The second figure looked at the first cynically. "You do realize that didn't make any sense, right?"

He slowly shrugged, still staring blankly into the pearl. "It's all in perspective."

"Master…" the second figured whined again. "At least I got you to stop speaking in limericks…" it sighed.

* * *

**Outskirts of Water Gun's house**

Red Fire was laying down, sleeping. The ground around him was completely destroyed by teeth and claw marks, and the bushes around him were a mixture of completely burnt and half eaten. But Red Fire himself? Besides some dirt and some scratches here and there, he was completely fine- although, you couldn't say the same for the poor Azurll that he had somehow managed to regain as a stuffed Teddyursa. It was mumbling something to soothe itself under Red Fire's tight grip; and it didn't help that every few minutes Red Fire licked it, causing it to freeze in terror. The poor thing must've been traumatized for life.

This was the scene Water Gun walked into. He had been looking for Red Fire everywhere. He already finished restocking his home, so they wouldn't need to do any foraging for a long while. All he had to do now was find Red Fire and bring him back home. Well, here he was so...

Water Gun chuckled a bit when he saw Red Fire. "Daja vous..."

* * *

**END**

*(World fell apart) This happened to me before. Surprising enough, it was at Subway. They didn't have any meatballs for the Meatball sub. It took a whole minute to bring me back to consciousness. I didn't faint, but the discription I gave pretty much describes what I felt.

**(Cruelness of going up to a Pokemon and capturing it) Yeah, that's right! I'm talking to you trainers out there!

**Well that's the end. And here's the ending note: please answer the question and please review. (40 reviews! WOOT!)**

**Oh, and a shout out! There's this really good story out there guys. It has great fluidity, character depth, and a really awesome plot so far. Interested? It's called Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Trial of Hearts. I know that some of you are reading it, so those who aren't, go and do so- and review while your at it.**

**Also, I'm working on another story. It's going to be about the beast trio. There'll only be three or four chapters— long chapters— and it'l be in my 'discriptionist' style. Be on the look out for it.**

**Well, that's all I have to say. Well, that and read and review. Till next time folks!**

**~Claw~**


	16. The Ritual

**Ok. As the author of WaterBlaze, I owe you, my readers a gigantic apology. It's been way too long since I had last updated. Sure I have a couple of excuses—namely reading too much fanfiction instead of writing—but when I posted this story, I made it my obligation to update and see through the ending of WaterBlaze—no, that doesn't mean I'm quitting out (I do have a chapter here, don't I?). Quite the opposite actually: I'm going to try to update regularly—not that fortnight update plan that somehow ended up dying six times over, but just regularly. WaterBlaze will have been up for a year soon, and the fact that I only have 14/16 short chapters is kinda sad. I'll do my best to update regularly. You don't have my word, of course, since I don't know if anything (school-wise) will come up. But I will do my best—just know that. **

**Ok, now onto more important things. I'm asking the same question again (that means you also answer again): **

_Would you rather join the lightning, or wait out the storm?_

**Oh, and before I forget, I'd like to say something:**

I don't write disclaimers because I am already smart enough to know I don't own Pokémon. But I prompt a question to all of you, if everyone in the world became a Pokémon would Nintendo own us all?

**BTW, there's a reference to Sesame Street in this chapter, whoever gets it gets a cookie and a special gift. (Hmm… a hint?) Oh, and there's a special surprise at the end of the chapter.**

**~Xlaw~**

* * *

_**Last Time on WaterBlaze:**_

_Red Fire was lying down, sleeping. The ground around him was completely destroyed by teeth and claw marks, and the bushes around him were a mixture of completely burnt and half eaten. But Red Fire himself? Besides some dirt and some scratches here and there, he was completely fine- although, you couldn't say the same for the poor Azurill that he had somehow managed to regain as a stuffed Teddiursa. It was mumbling something to soothe itself under Red Fire's tight grip; and it didn't help that every few minutes Red Fire licked it, causing it to freeze in terror. The poor thing must've been traumatized for life._

_This was the scene Water Gun walked into. He had been looking for Red Fire everywhere. He already finished restocking his home, so they wouldn't need to do any foraging for a long while. All he had to do now was find Red Fire and bring him back home. Well, here he was so..._

_Water Gun chuckled a bit when he saw Red Fire. "Déjà vous..."_

* * *

**Arc 2: Tag! We're IT!  
Chapter 14~ The Ritual**

* * *

**~Water Gun's House~**

As I woke up, I yawned and stretched lazily. Water Gun's hay bed was really comfy and soft. I cracked open an eye to see what was going on in the world around me. It was then that I was wacked in the face by a blue ball. A very Familiar blue ball…

"Stupid Azurill…" I mumbled as I glared at the sleeping form of the blue mouse. The stupid thing somehow always manages to find its way to me when I sleep. Then, whenever I wake up, he always runs off. Not this time. I grabbed the middle of his tail—you know the zig-zag-y part that connects his body to the ball—and shook the living Mew out of him. That should wake him up real well.

Eventually, he finally woke up and started crying, which was what he normally does when he sees me, I held him, upside down, up into the air and glared at him. "Okay, you stupid excuse for a blue Azurill"—yes, that was the best I could come up with; I was still sleepy, mind you. "I wanna know who you are, and why you're following me. You better tell me, 'cause I'm going to eat you if you don't." I licked my lips threateningly. He struggled under my grasp and I flashed my teeth at him. Man, I don't think I've done this in a long while.

"Hey come on, Red!" I looked over at Water Gun, who was staring at one of the walls for some reason. Looking closer, I saw it wasn't the wall he was staring at, but something ON the wall. I'm a genius. "Stop scaring the poor guy. It's not like you're actually going to eat him." Idiot has to go and try to ruin my fun, doesn't he?

"Yes I am"

"Oh. Okay then." Water Gun sounded pretty preoccupied; did he even realize what he just said? Oh well, back to my interrogation…

"Hold on! Wait!" Water Gun screamed and ran over to me, dropping whatever he was working on. "What am I talking about? Red Fire, you _can't_eat him!"

"Well, why the Mew not?" You know, I'm pretty sure this is what they call mixed messages…

"Come on Red, we're rescuers now! You can't just go out and harm or eat other Pokémon willy-nilly!"

"Well, I'm not going out. I'm perfectly able of causing harm to other Pokémon within the comfort of my own home!" The Squirtle faced-palmed himself in frustration.

"This is MY home! And we're _rescuers_now! Not Pokémon-harm-doers!" Water Gun grabbed the Azurill's body to try and pull him away from me.

"Well, I sure as Mew don't care!" I let go of it's zig-zaggy-tail-connector-thing and managed to grab it's actual ball-shaped tail, pulling the rest of the Azurill's body closer to me.

"Well, I'm your partner and I do!" He pulled a little harder; the Azurill's cries of bloody murder was drowned out by our shouting.

"Funny how that still doesn't make me care." I pulled harder.

"Come on! Let go!" He pulled harder.

"No! You!" I pulled harder.

"You!"

"I had him first!"

"How is that relevant?"

"I don't know! Just LET GO!" With one final tug, the Azurill screamed and I felt some…thing give way.

**RRIIIIPPPPPPPPPP!**

The Azurill was in a bloody heap on the ground, writhing and crying in pain. Water Gun had the biggest shocked expression that I've ever seen on his face. And I… was grinning.

* * *

"Red Fire…? Red Fire…? Anybody home…?" I stared at Water Gun, who was waving his arm in my face. I swatted it away annoyingly.

I'm sorry everyone. Looks like my imagination got a little carried away again… eh-hehe… that hasn't happened in a while. So yeah, the little Azurill creeper didn't get ripped in half… I know, I'm disappointed too…

"Hey! What happened to the Azurill?" I asked. The little buzzard disappeared on me! That must be how he tracks me! He can turn invisible!

"He escaped when you dosed off after you said you could hurt Pokémon in my house… You really didn't notice that? He even hit your maw with his tail." Oh, I thought I tasted blood in my mouth. Strange… I also taste… Aw yuck! Is that dirt? Does that mean… that dream I had was true?

Last night, I had dreamt that there wasn't any food left in the world. I went everywhere to look for something to eat, before I was attacked by a mad Akens that wraped around me and fell asleep before it could eat me. I was so hungry that I was forced to eat dirt that fell from the sky. Then a bunch of leaves came to life to help the Akens to eat me. But a fat Psyduck came and made the Akens eat itself then flew away. No… What am I talking about? There's no way that dream was true; If there wasn't any food left in the world, I'd be the first to know.

"Hello…? Red Fire…?" Again, I swatted Water Gun's hand away. "Are you okay? You keep on dosing off. What, are you narrating a story or something?"

"Ha! Good one." I said sarcastically. "Do Milktank fly too?"

"Okay then. Just making sure. I got some fruit for you from my food room—"

"A Food room?" I shouted. A room…dedicated to food? Now I know that my dream wasn't true! I didn't know he even had other rooms—never mind a room just for food! This has to be some kind of world wonder or something…

"Yeah, I couldn't dig a cellar, so I just store berries in a room. I'll show you it later, Red. We really have to get going to the Rescue Base." Darn, I completely forgot about the stupid Rescue Base. We still have that stupid IT training thing to do…

After Water Gun and I ate our berries; which were delicious Qualot berries—tasty spicy, sweet, and sour-y goodness… Anyway, after we ate, we headed over to the Rescue Base to start our training. We walked into the front doors of the Base, and were about to head down that hatch that led to that room with the slide, when that Delcatty at the table stopped us.

Delly yawned widely before she spoke to us. "Where are you two going?"

"The Dojo." Water Gun answered simply.

"Well," Delly began, stretching lazily. "You'll be happy to know your going the wrong way."

"Riiiight. That's why this is the way that Tawny and Jay took us." I retorted sarcastically. Really, who does she think she is? Some know-it-all that knows everything—er, no… some Delcatty that knows everything…? …Yeesh! I've been doing horrible with name-calling lately…

"That's _Headmaster_ Tawny and _Headmaster_ Jay. The honorifics might be troublesome, but it's there for a reason." She glared at me lazily. Yeah, you can pretty much put 'lazy' with everything she does. "Headmasters Tawny and Jay took you down this way because it's where the registration room is. The underground connects many places in Greener Meadow to here, and the Main Hallway of the underground links all of the buildings in Rescue Circle together."

"…and this has to do with the Dojo, how? Even better question, why the Mew should I care?" Really, most of the stuff she was spouting was confusing the heck out of me.

Delly began to sigh, but it was cut off by a yawn. "You should care because it's less of a walk." She lazily flicked her tail towards the main entrance, pointing at it. "Just head out and keep straight. The Dojo's main entrance is on the other side of Rescue Circle, right in front of the Rescue Base."

Water Gun and I turned to follow Delly's directions, but before we left the Base, I turned and glanced at Delly, who was sunbathing on the top of the desk.

"Erm…Thanks, Delly," Well, there goes my best attempt to sound nonchalant.

Delly cracked open one of her eyes and looked at me. "No problem, Red."

* * *

**Ivy Town Dojo**

We followed Delly's instructions like she had told us and ended up in front of a gigantic rock dome. The entrance of the dojo was a cave, which was big enough for a Pokémon of any size to enter. As we walked through it, I could see a large bonfire that illuminated the whole room. Surprisingly enough, this Dojo room looked exactly like the room underground.

As we walked closer and closer to the fire, I saw black shadows dancing around it. Even stranger, they were chanting something.

"Ooo ha ha Ooo ha haaa…"

"Eeeee yum ta hoo…"

"kooo ki mon sa…"

"Waa Hee Nuuuuuuu HA!"

Suddenly they all stopped and faced us. I could easily single out Hariyama-Sensei as the one leading the group to us. I mean, you'd have to be blind not to see that fat lard…

"Welcome!" Sensei yelled. "The ritual, she must BEGIN!" The bonfire flared as he shouted 'begin' and the other teams—well, those who could—squatted down and, with determination burning in their eyes, shouted the last line of the chant in unison.

"Waa Hee Nuuuuuuu HA!" At that, the bonfire vanished and the rest of the lighting around the dojo burned into existence.

"Really, who's controlling this?" Water Gun asked with his arms folded. I had to agree with him, someone had to be controlling the fire behind the scenes.

That's when I saw it. Right before me, where the bonfire was once burning, was a gigantic bed of coal. Burning hot coal. "Waa Hee Nuuuuuuu HA!" The other teams were still squatting like it was the most important thing to do in existence. I, being my dumb self, couldn't help but turn a curious eye to them.

"Are you constipated?" Pretty much everyone broke their stance. The Teddiursa fell into a fit of giggles and Diyari was writhing in laughter. Skid was the only one who was glaring at me.

"You totally ruined it!"

"No he didn't!", Diyari rolled her eyes. "If anything, he made it better. The ritual's getting old. And I'm running out of aloe Vera. I swear, if I have to do it one more time...

"Aloe Vera…?" Diyari's response was drowned out by Sensei Hariyama's loud bellow.

"THE RITUAL, SHE HAS BEEN INTERRUPTED!" Everyone in the Dojo looked at him as his voice resounded throughout the room. "We shall not continue her. But, the entrance ceremony, we shall still do her since rocks still burn red. The Bed of Reddened Stones, we shall all line up in front of her!" …The Bed of Reddened Stones? the other teams nodded and lined up in front of the giant ocean of burning coal. Not really knowing what else to do, Water Gun and I followed suit.

My eyes nearly popped out of my sockets when I saw Sensei Hariyama jump on to the bed and waddle-run his way across it. One by one, every team member ran across the burning coal—or in the case of the Sparrow, pick up pieces of the coal and fly across. Far too soon, it was our turn to run across, and just by the looks of it, I could tell that Water Gun wasn't exactly sure of what to think of this, partly because of the nervous glance he gave me. He took a cautioned step and stared at the bed of coal. "I don't think I can do this…"

"Come one!" A voice shouted on the other side of the bed of coal. Looking over, I saw it was that Nidorino. "You're taking too long, you wimp!" Ignoring him, I looked back towards Water Gun, who looked like he didn't even hear him. I wouldn't be surprised, the way he was so focused on the coal. I sighed. I only just noticed how much of a fear problem Water Gun had. First there was the Sandshrew, when he froze up in fear even though he had a full type advantage, then After the Sandshrew, when he thought I had died and there would be no hope to escape—though I can't really blame him for that—and then there was the Tropius, when he couldn't stand up to the weak pansies, he might have had a type disadvantage, but they were still weak. Even before the Sandshrew, he freaked out when he first thought I wasn't going to escape with him. And then there was now…

I looked at Water Gun again, he was still staring at the coal. I nodded to myself; there was only one way to do this…

I put my hand on the back of his shell, and, mustering all of my strength, I pushed him as hard as I could—which meant he was flying out to the middle of the bed of coal. Hm.. I guess I need to work out more, I thought I was stronger than that…

Before he hit the coal, Water Gun was able to retract into his shell. He lay there, inside of his shell for a few moments before springing up into the air shouting in pain. Looks like the heat of the coal somehow managed to go through his shell. He stood there, glaring at me.

"What was that for?" I just stared at him, or rather, I stared at his feet. It took at least a minute or two for him to realize that he was still standing on burning hot coal. Screaming, he began to run all over the place in pain. Only after he ran in a circle three times, did Water Gun stop running to flop over on his stomach on the other side of the bed of coal. My plan worked perfectly.

Finally, it was my turn. I looked at the coal. It couldn't be that bad…could it? Eh, whatever. The worst thing that could happen is me dying—and that's not too bad, I can live with that. It's now or never.

I jumped on to the bed of coal, preparing myself for the great pain soon to come. So imagine my surprise when, after I land, I feel a tingling sensation from my feet. It was burning hot, but it felt so good, so relaxing, so…indescribable… "Quit standing there! We don't have all day you masochist!" ….I am really going to punch that prick again. Ruin my feet-feel-good time, will you!

Either way, I guess I did look pretty stupid standing on a giant bed of coal and looking more content than ever. Making sure to take my time and enjoy the warmth, I walked across the bed of coal and stood next to Water Gun, who giving me a mixture of an angry and awkward stare. Actually, now that I think about it, everyone else was staring at me awkwardly too—well, everyone besides sensei, who for some weird reason looked very pleased.

"Friends of mine, Red Fire, she is a fire type—"

"I'm a guy!" Stupid sensei needs to get his pronouns straight for once. Not everything in the world is a girl.

"—and the fire types, they have high tolerance of heat." Unfortunately, he showed no sign of hearing me whatsoever. "This, I was expecting. So this knowledge, you shall remember her! Our pool of wisdom, she gains another fish!"

"But, this fish, she is wounded! This fish, we shall nourish her and feed her, sensei—so that she will someday be the largest among all of our other fish. Grow well, little knowledge fish; you shall benefit us, as we do to you." All of the trainees spoke in unison. It was actually creepy. Are we…going to have to _learn_ this stuff? Dear Mew! What did I get myself into? This definitely was not what I signed up for.

"Hey Red Fire, did you know that?" And there goes Water Gun and interrupting my wonderful thoughts of foreboding again.

"Of course I did! Who do you take me for? " Ok, I'll admit. I actually had no clue whatsoever of my near fire immunity abilities… but hey, what they don't know won't hurt them…

"That's so cool! I wish I could be immune to heat."

"I don't know…" The Teddiursa, Fawne, spoke up hesitantly. "If someone was immune to heat they might get cold to easily. Even though Fire types are stronger against Ice types, it doen't mean that they aren't liable to freeze to death." That was a good point, I do get cold a lot, but I just ignore it. Then again, according to sensei, I just have a strong resistance to heat—I'm not immune.

"Oh be quiet Fawne, you always overthink things. I know I'd kill to have immunity to heat." Diyari crossed her arms as she mused. She looked at me curiously and smiled at me. "Just in case you don't know, I'm an ice type, so anything hot basically burns with fury." Huh… an ice type? Who knew? The way she looked made me think of her as a dark type or something.

"Diyari!" Fawne exclaimed, "You shouldnt go and tell him your weaknesses like that!"

"Maybe. But just because he knows my weakness, doesn't mean he's strong enough to exploit it…"

"Hey! Are you trying to tell me I'm weak? Cause if you are, let's go right here, right now!" Call me weak will you—!

Diyari shook her head with a smile on her face. "You've got spunk. But, I wasn't calling you weak. I was calling myself strong. I've been training longer than you have." She was probably right. But that doesn't mean that I was gonna back down. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish my tirade: the prick spoke up.

"You guys are stupid idiots! Who cares about fire types! Poison is the best type to be! Poison's strong, and lethal, and you've gotta get rid of it fast or it'll kill you!"

"You know," Began Fawne, "there are some Pokémon out there that aren't affected by poison. When they get infected, they say it just annoys them until it goes away."

Diyari burt out laughing. "In that case, the poison-type fits Skid perfectly!" Mostly everyone except Skid's Team chuckled as the Nidorino steamed.

"The types!" Sensei exclaimed, "Each has a weakness and a strength! This knowledge fish, she is something you have learned in the past, but it is good to remember her."

And of course, once again, everyone shouts some weird chant together…."This knowledge fish, we have re-found the knowledge within her! We will—"

"The Remembrance of the Knowledge Fish, do not say her—there is no need. She has been remembered and re-acknowledged, that is enough for her." Sensei then turned and looked at Water Gun and I and slapped his stomach. Yes, you heard me right. He _slapped his stomach_. I was pretty disturbing how much it jiggled too.. "Team WaterBlaze, she has completed the entrance ceremony! We officially accept her into IT! The training regimen, she shall begin NOW!"

"Yes, Sensei Hariyama!" Everyone shouted and headed towards one of the corners of the fire lit dojo. It was then that I noticed there was a set of stairs leading down in the corner. As Water Gun and I began to follow down along with everyone, Sensei Hariyama stopped us.

"No. You two shall not follow. The training we shall do, she is too advanced for you. Wait on this floor. Team WaterBlaze, she shall have a private training."

"Um… ok

"What? You've gotta be kidding me! I can take on anything you give me! I'll show you too advanced—!" Water Gun stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Red, you know he's right. We're not as experienced as the other teams. But hey, we'll start small, then become really strong." Hate to admit it, but he was right. But, patience was never my thing, and neither was letting other Pokémon look down on me.

"The True words, you speak her. Wait on this floor, your mentor, she will be coming soon." With that, Sensei Hariyama went down the stairs and left us.

"Soo… what do you think our private mentor will be like? Sensei said 'she' so it has to be a girl…"

I gave Water Gun the biggest deadpanned stare I could manage. "What the Mew is wrong with you? Did you forget that idiot called me a 'she' too? It's probably going to be some know-it-all idiot who'll try to jam everything down our throat."

"First off…" A new voice spoke up. Suddenly, a long white thing hit Water Gun square on the chest. He fell over on his back and moaned in pain. "…I'm not a girl. Secondly," Before I could even think about what was happening, another white thing hit me on the chest and knocked me over. A burst of pain went throughout my whole body. "Don't talk about you're new Mentor like that."

I looked up to our attacker—apparently our new sadistic Mentor. He stood over us and caught whatever white thing that had hit Water Gun and me. "To tell you the truth, I never though I'd see you two again—especially like this."

* * *

**-END-**

**Well, that's it for that chapter. Next one will be coming soon…hopefully. Now, remember how I said I had a special surprise at the end of the chapter? Well, here it is! See, another reason why I haven't been updating as much, is because I'm working on another Pokémon fan-fic (yes, same one I mentioned in the last chapter). So, I'm going to give all of you a sneak peak on some parts of what I have written so far. Here we go!**

* * *

**~o0o~**

_In the distant past…_

_This tower burned in a fire. _

_Three nameless Pokémon perished in it. _

_A rainbow-colored Pokémon descended from the sky and resurrected them…  
_

―_Old guy by Burned Bell Tow_er

**~o0o~**

_I am bred to be brave, courageous, and loyal. I am trained for great strength; assured to be liable in battle; commend for my resilient honor; and respected not only for my nearly perfect record and ability to ensure justice, but also for my radiant authority that forces all opponents to cower. Despite this, You know only my kind, not me. I am only one of the thousands of my kind_―_an unimportant singular._

**~o0o~**

The end to my story begins a week before my beginning. We were celebrating; my partner and I―we had finally made the elite bronze mark, a rank that any officer would die for (as compared to the elite silver or gold mark, a rank an officer could only die in their dreams for). We had actually made it two days prior to that one, but due to being over swamped with work we had chosen to put off the celebration date.

We were having a picnic on the outskirts of Ilex forest; close to route 35, which lead to Goldenrod. Officer Jenny (or rather her full name: Officer Annison Jenny) and I sat on a grassy plain, shrouded by the shadow of the tree we were under. I sat farthest from the tree, with my forepaws crossed respectably and my mostly empty large bowl of Pokémon food and berries directly under my erect head. I was smiling at my partner, who lazily looked back in complete content. We were both filled to the brims of our stomachs and enjoying the last few moments of the soon to be setting sun. It was our day off; and we were sure to use the last few moments of it to it's fullest. Or, at least, we had planned to.

"Annison? Annison are you here? I was told that I would fin―ah! Yes! Annison; there you are!" Officer Jenny cracked an eye open to take a glance at the intruder; and I followed suit. It was a young man, near the age of Officer Jenny. He wore a long white trench coat that gave him the appearance of a doctor or scientist instead of his actual status.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, quickly putting together a respectable composure, "Investigator Rubar! I would say this is a pleasant surprise."

"Well, the pleasure is mine. Unfortunately, my reason for being here isn't. Annison, you have another assignment―"

"An assignment? Investigator, it's our day _off_..."

"Yes I know. Congratulations on making the bronze mark by the way."

"Thank you" she replied. I also added a grunt of thanks, not appreciating being ignored.

"Of course," He said, nodding to me as well. "―And, as much as I would hate to cut short your celebration, we have a very important assignment for you."

"Investigator, it's our day off. If it's that important why don't you get Audrey to do it? She's been a Bronze longer than I have."

"You didn't hear?" he said solemnly. "Annison, Audrey's dead. She died around three days ago."

"She's dead?"

"Yes. Apparently she died during an sight investigation. Wild Graveler had attacked her team. During their escape, Audrey was hit and her motorcycle sped off a cliff."

"Oh wow..." She look away for a moment, eyes glazed over and a frown plastered on her face. Sighing, she turned her gaze back to the Investigator. "What about Laura ―or Benet?"

"Already deployed on an assignment. Annison, please come; if you don't I was told to effectuate article 9."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "That important? Then, I guess I'll have to come." Allow me to clarify. In our Agency, we have assorted Articles that we go by―a rulebook if you will. In particular, Article 9 states that, in the case of an emergency, an officer can be forcibly deployed into an assignment without pay and whether they have an active status or not. It was nothing to joke about, and was normally avoided to the utmost degree.

Sighing as she got up and stretched I could see Officer Jenny's face crack slightly. She walked over to Investigator, with me close behind, and sighed, reminiscing. "Joey, whatever happened to all of us? Whatever happened to that little boy who swore he would marry me some day?"

"He died and a man replaced him. Come on Annison, let's head over to the station; I'll drive you. ―And try to stick to protocol." Investigator replied.

"Thanks," Annison said, rebuilding her composure again. "Let's go."

**~o0o~**

* * *

**So, what'dya think? Hoped you liked it. I have more written, but I didn't want to give away too much. Thanks for reading, and please review. **

**Electric-Claw, signing off.**

**~Claw~**


	17. They're Back to Haunt Us

**Whew! Finally, it's out! I'd say sorry for the wait, but it'd be pointless. Instead, how about you just go and enjoy what I've written for you? BUT! Don't forget about that question I'm asking you!**

_~~Would you rather join the lightning or wait out the storm?_

**Now, let's get started.**

* * *

**Arc II~ We're IT**

**Chapter 15~ They're Back to Haunt Us**

* * *

_~**Last Time**~_

_"First off…" A new voice spoke up. Suddenly, a long white thing hit Water Gun square on the chest. He fell over on his back and moaned in pain. "…I'm not a girl. Secondly," Before I could even think about what was happening, another white thing hit me on the chest and knocked me over. A burst of pain went throughout my whole body. "Don't talk about you're new Mentor like that."_

_I looked up to our attacker—apparently our new sadistic Mentor. He stood over us and caught whatever white thing that had hit Water Gun and me. "To tell you the truth, I never though I'd see you two again—especially like this."_

* * *

Our attacker, who was apparently our new mentor, stood over us with a cruel evil grin plastered on his face. Or at least, I imagined it was. His odd boney helmet limited the view of what I did see of his face. To tell you the truth I really didn't expect to see him again. But I guess it did made sense.

"You!" Water Gun shouted, "You're our new mentor!"

"Of course. Who else did you think it would be?"

With a grunt, I pushed myself off the dusty ground and watched as Water Gun followed suit. "Well, Water Gun already said he was expecting a girl…" Said squirtle lifted up his head curiously and glanced at me. Seeing the smirk on my face he smirked back, getting the idea and playing along.

"…and Red already said he was expecting a wise-guy who'd try to jam everything down our throat."

We both look to our new mentor, who was still somewhat covered in the darkness, with our smirks on our face. "So," I began, "in a sense I guess we both got what we wished for."

He looked at us with a slightly angered blank stare; and, with a simple flick of his wrist, he sent he boney boomerang to plaster us to the ground. Of course, we were expecting it this time, and it was in full sight—no shroudy "hidden in the darkness" crap—so despite it's speed, Water Gun was able to dodge the boomerang by jumping towards me. He smirked at the boomerang's owner in triumph as he crossed his arms.

Unfortunately, he forgot an important detail about boomerangs: they tend to right back at you. So the boney thing came straight back and knocked him full over on the back of his head. Course, I was caught in surprise when he let the dang thing swing back around and hit me full force in my face. I was knocked down on my back and I could feel the warmth of blood that accompanied a bloody nose.

"All insolence will be paid off, I assure you." I could almost fell the pompous smirk that I imagined him having. Yes, I said imagined. I couldn't even hope to see a speck of light with the world of hurt I felt.

Then again, I pulled through and pulled myself up, using my arm as a support. I spat out some of the blood that had ran down to my mouth and smirked snidely towards were I thought I saw him in— with all that pain, for all I know I could have been smirking at a wall. "Is that a yes or a maybe?"

"Sweet Mew! Tarsal! Not even five minutes and their already a beaten pulp!" A familiar voice cried to. Nice to know Headmaster Tawny is here again. "Bloody nose and unconscious!"

"I'm not unconscious!" Water Gun raise shouted out, his face still plastered in the dirt. "Just got a bad headache!"

"The why don't you get up you idiot?" I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Water Gun.

"Uh… the ground tastes good?" Fair enough.

"I know that's right."

Headmaster Tawny had gotten us cleaned up and taken care of in less than thirty minutes. She didn't do it herself of course; apparently the dojo had a one-way emergency hotline to the hospital. Go figure.

After we were given the ok to continue whatever the heck we were doing, the four of us sat together on the ground level of the dojo and staring at each other in awkward silence.

"Well," Headmaster Tawny began, "I only came here to introduce both of you to you're private mentor, but it seems like Tarsal took care of that himself, so… I guess I leave now."

"Wait.." I barely stopped her, but thank Mew I did. "You mean you're not staying? You're going to leave us with this mad sack of potatoes?" Tarsal huffed at the insult.

"Red Fire, please don't misunderstand our implications." Headmaster Tawny smiled sweetly yet somehow simultaneously threateningly. "We, and I in particular, are _not_ here to mother you. You are here to train, and to tell you the truth, if it was I mentoring you, I'd do worst; not to mention that worst has happened during training. Bloodshed builds character—as I used to say." I stood there, in front of her, agape in some sort of mixture of feelings. The most evident one was hunger. Yes, with all of this action, you can't blame a guy for being hungry. And if you're wondering, no, it does not bother me that the thought of bloodshed—ours in particular—made me hungry.

"Besides," Headmaster Tawny continued, "You have nothing to worry about; Tarsal might be strict, but he's more talk than action—well, not really. But at the very least, you'll come out half sane!" That made it all the more better…

"Now, enough of this! I want to begin training you immediately! We're wasting time."

"Tarsal! Are you saying that _I _am a waste of time?" Headmaster Tawny exclaimed in mock hurt. Smiling as our new mentor stuttered at his mistake, Tawny winked as she prepared her wings for flight. "Well, I won't let my presence hinder you. Don't work them too hard, I'd like to keep the new recruits alive for at least one IT day. " With a strong sweep of her wings, she lifted off into the air and flew towards the darkness covered exit.

You know, I really should have expected this. Really. Tarsal popping up again to mentor us was really unpredictable, and with how my life has been unpredictable lately, I should have guessed that it would happen. Yes, I'm saying that I should have predicted the unpredictable; it makes sense after all. On the other hand the most unpredictable thing would probably be the Headmasters themselves coming out to mentor us—or a legendary doing it. But that kind of stuff only happens in horrible plots.

Anyway, while I was staring off towards the direction Headmaster Tawny flew off, musing to myself, a tall figure, outlined by the darkness, slowly approached our trio. "Okay, that's it!" I shouted. "What's with everyone here and hiding in the darkness?"

"Yeah, I was totally like that when I first came here." The figure revealed himself to be an all too familiar Pokémon. He had weird red pants on and an even weirder matching crown on his head. Or was it a hat? Meh, either way, that stupid medicham was back. That's right, the same idiot medicham that caused that stupid earthquake that ruined my stupid old home by opening a stupid giant chasm to some stupid crazy dungeon that my stupid friend and me almost died in. Funny, you'd think a guy would get over something _so insignificant_ after _five days_. "But you get used to it after a while. You've gotta admit, it's pretty legit."

"I'll admit this," Tarsal began "if you're ever late again, I will rip that ridiculous crown off your head and feed it too you. That goes for you two as well Orange, Aqua Jet." He faced us with a stern look. "From now on, I want to see you everyday at sunrise. That's _exactly_ at sunrise. Anytime later and punishment ensues—as a forewarning, I'm very creative."

Despite the fact that he got our names wrong again, I could see Water Gun undauntedly making the mental note in his head to do just that. Me on the other hand, I couldn't care less— I had better thing to do.

I glared at the medicham that wrecked what I considered my perfect life and marched right up to him. "I bet you thought I forgot, didn't you? Here's some news, I didn't. You destroyed my home! I'm going to strangle you!"

"Wah! Chill man!" He shouted out and formed a pink barrier around himself. Mew dang it! Not again! "I said sorry already, man! What more do you want from me?" Before I could fling myself at him despite all logic, Water Gun came up behind me and rapped his arms around my neck in a chokehold.

"Come on Red, not again." He said. "He _did_ say he was sorry before, just forgive and forget already."

"Whether he does or he doesn't matter." Tarsal said, looking at me. "As long as he understands attacking Dirge like that again will cost him his place in the Rescue Base, and in affect yours too. Senseless assault is against our ways. Orange, whether you like it or not, Dirge is going to be my assistant in mentoring you. You will not attack him, or I for that matter, unless he, the headmasters, or I tell you. Clear?"

A few moments of silence passed, and I didn't reply. Water Gun looked down at me worryingly and I could tell he was about to say something, until he noticed my face was blue. "Oh my Mew!" His eyes widened and he quickly released his chokehold on me. "Sorry Red, I kinda uh… forgot."

I fell to the ground trying to take in all the air I could. "Were you trying to kill me?" I gasped out in between breaths. How the mew can you just forget about something like that! That stupid squirtle HAS to be insane!

After a few minutes of contemplating whether or not Water Gun was an undercover assassin, I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. I looked up at Tarsal as he gave me an expectant look. "Is that clear?" He said, emphasizing every word.

I turned my head to look at Dirge, the idiot who ruined my life and home and gave into a glare I was holding back. I glanced at Water Gun who looked back wearily. I nodded to myself and turned back to Tarsal, smirking. "As crystal." I decided mentally: grudges… weren't worth it.

* * *

"Alright! Despite the fact that we're starting extremely late because of various reasons, I expect you two to complete all the activates I planned out."

"Yes sir!" Water Gun and I shouted out.

"First off, I'd like to know your current abilities and limits. So, you will both be telling me what moves that you know you know. Before any of you ask, there are many cases where a Pokémon knows a move but hasn't discovered that he or she knows it. Now, start taking! Aqua Jet, you first."

Water Gun ignored the fact that Tarsal got his name wrong _again_ and proudly spoke. "I know the moves Water Gun, Bubble, Skull Bash, Rain Dance, Dive, and of course Tackle, Withdraw and Tail Whip." He puffed out his chest and smirked proudly.

Tarsal flicked his wrist dismissively. "Those last three weren't real moves. Looks like we're going to have to get you some TMs. Orange, what are yours?" At his words Water Gun looked down, deflated.

"It's Red Fire, not 'Orange'! And I know the moves Ember, Scratch, Fling, Bite, Rage, and my favorite: rest."

Tarsal looked at me, obviously unimpressed. Dirge's horrible muffled snicker made me deadpan. "And you guys managed to get through Dirt Crevice with those puny moves? Either you were really lucky, or you had some major strategy going on."

"We did have strategy. Water Gun doused anything that moved and I burned everything else."

"I suppose that's good enough," said Tarsal. "Within time we will teach you strategy and other complex things, and you will learn not only more moves but how to use them at their best ability. But, as we're going with baby steps, right now I would just like you to do one thing: Run laps around the dojo until you earnestly drop. Of course there will be stretching first, and stretching afterwards if you can manage to move…"

And thus our torture began...

* * *

_Red Fire._

_Wake up Red Fire._

No, I'm fine thanks.

_Red, he's going to double the work out if he finds out you're sleeping!_

I don't care. Nighty night.

_Red, wake up! ..or else._

Whatever you'll do, I promise you'll regret it.

_You leave me no choice._

Oh, that right, you can't hear my thoughts. Oh well.

A blast of icy cold water cruelly forced me awake. I jumped a good four feet into the air before landing on my stomach. I tried to pick myself up, but my body refused to comply. I felt weak. The weakest I've ever been in my life. Every muscle I had was burning, my whole mouth was dry, and the lack of air getting to my lungs was probably why I was breathing so fast. And sweet mother of mew was I tired. Sooooooo tttiirrrreeed. I could just fall back asleep right here—wherever here was.

"NO! Red, don't go to sleep! We're about two miles from Ivy Town. If we take any longer, Sensei Tarsal and Dirge might get suspicious."

Oh yeah. The laps. And Tarsal. Both cruel, and both trying to kill me. Remember a couple days ago, when we first met the headmasters? And remember how I pointed out that Greener Meadow was about 50 onix long?* Let's just say I got to know those 50 onix _very_ well. It all started so innocently too. At first, we only ran around the dojo, then the second week came and it was running around the town. But it didn't stop there, oh no. As soon as the third week began, our sadist of a sensei decided it would be a great idea to make one lap around Greener Meadow our primary morning workout, mostly because we had to use our whole body. We'd use our lower body to run most of the way and our upper body to drag us the rest.

'Course, running was really the only torture. Everything else we did was kinda fun. Working with our moves and inventing ways to use them filled the rest of the day. Speaking of which, he got us some pretty awesome TMs.

"You mean just Tarsal. Not me." Spoke a voice behind us. We jumped and turned our heads. Standing right behind us was a slightly winded medicham. Dirge. What the mew?

Dirge gave us a slightly sheepish look. "I kinda called Tarsal's bone thing a club. He was totally pissed. Told me to run laps around the place and stuff too."

"But how the mew did you get here so fast? It took us forever just to get here!" I asked. Dirge infuriating Tarsal was a normal thing that I eventually got used to. I think they even like it.

"Hey man, you forget that I'm a legit Rescuer. Soon, you might be almost as good as me—well, you can try. I did already lap you twice." My pupils dilated. _Twice_? He already ran around Greener Meadow _twice_? Oh sweet mew… "Anyways, I'm going to do like, maybe three more before you guys meet me there. See ya,"

We watched as Dirge ran off in a swift but silent blur. "Whoa." Water Gun's statement summed everything up.

* * *

Calling the rest of the run back to town a 'run' would like calling a pansy grass Pokémon powerful. Like I said already, half the way we run, the rest we drag ourselves. We were approaching the west city entrance when we saw Tarsal approaching us. We stopped dragging ourselves and waited. Soon enough he was right in front of us with the type of glare someone would have when they expected someone great to be able to do something but found that they couldn't.

Seconds after he crossed his arms, Dirge popped up from a random bush. The idiot beat us here, just like he said he would.

"Better, but not good enough. I suppose patience will have to be my primary objective while I'm training you." I rolled my eyes as Tarsal drawled down in an annoying bored tone. We do our best and that's all this idiot can say? We even ran longer than we normally do! "Either way, today won't be a normal training day for you. In fact, you won't be training at all. Go report to the headmasters at the RBO. They want to see you."

"How the mew are we going to get there? We're totally exhausted if you haven't noticed!" Really, if there were on thing Tarsal did the most that annoyed me, it would be expecting us to do what we can't.

"Here guys." Dirge said, holding out his hands to us. "I'll scratch you're back."

So with us stumbling around like blind idiots, Water Gun and I made it to the Rescue Base with Dirge's help. I was almost surprised that he was actually able to support us both, but then I remembered he was a fighting type, which meant supporting two small Pokémon was probably easy for him.

"Alrighty," Dirge said as we neared the front doors of the Rescue Base. "You guys have finally caught a kinda normal breathing pattern, so you can probably take it from here. Good Luck!"

Good luck? What the mew was that supposed to mean? I looked at the doors and shrugged. I guess I'll find out sooner or later. Water Gun and I glanced at each other for a second before opening the door and walking in. We said a quick hello to Delly as we passed her, and hurried up the stairs. As we opened the wooden door, the sight of the three headmasters sitting down greeted us. They had been waiting.

Headmaster Jay looked at us impassively and I almost flinched under his apathetic gaze; Headmaster Tawny on the other hand was smiling at us in her weird twisted motherly way; and finally, Headmaster Rai simply stared at us. I had no idea what he was thinking or feeling whatsoever—or really cared either, and that went for each of them. The faster this was over the better.

It was then that I remembered something Water Gun had talked about when we first began—about that "teams of three" thing. The Headmasters were three…maybe they were on a team before they became headmasters. How do you become a headmaster in the first place anyway? Eh, whatever.

"It's nice to see you again Team WaterBlaze. I hope the training is going well."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Oh, don't get me started. Tarsal is a evil, sadistic—"

"Ahem!" I turned my head and cocked one of my non-existence eyebrows at Headmaster Jay, who had cleared his throat loudly.

"Sorry you two," Headmaster Tawny smiled awkwardly. "We don't have much time. So, let's cut to the chase, shall we? Team WaterBlaze, it's time for a mission."

* * *

*When Red Fire says, "Greener meadow was about 50 onix long" he means straight across from longest side to the other. In essence, he means if 50 onix went and decided to line up from head to tail for no reason whatsoever, they would make the diameter of Greener Meadow.

**Well, that's another chapter! I hope you enjoyed it despite the wait. And for those of you who didn't see it, Red Fire had a little character development in this chapter. And, since no one guess the Sesame Street reference in the last chapter, I guess I can throw away that little glimpse of Red Fire's future I wrote... Oh, by the way, I just realized that I should tell you that this little story of mine has received its first fan-art! It was a gift from my good friend The Heck! Here's a frayed link: /art/In-a-Blaze-of-Water-214257043**

**Hey, while you're at it, go check out his awesome fanfic "The Dark Chronicles". It has an awesome plot, awesome characters, and suspense. You'll be hooked, just like me, soon enough.**


	18. Break or Bust 1

**Hello. Yes it's me. That guy who took 6 months to update his story. And said up update barely even makes 3000 words. Yeah, sorry about that. A bunch of different thing like school, crazy crap, more school, and writer's block will do that to you. A good thing has happened though, during my absence, I've become a better writer! Well… with the help of this guide:**

_**derpy. me/Ezn Guide**_** [Take out spaces] Check it out if you want to become a better writer.**

**I checked up on all my old chapters, and for some reason, almost all the scene breaks are gone. I'm not really sure what happened. **

**Anyway, let's start this long awaited chapter:**

- kinda sorta not really scene break -

**Last time: **

"_Sorry you two," Headmaster Tawny smiled awkwardly. "We don't have much time. So, let's cut to the chase, shall we?"_

_Team WaterBlaze, it's time for a mission."_

- kinda sorta not really scene break -

**Arc II: We're IT! **

**Chapter 16~ Break or Bust 1**

Well, It defiantly took them long enough. I mean, come one! We've been slaved-driven nonstop for a month, completely surrounded by crazy powerhouse fighting types who expect us to do anything they can, and to top it off, we've already been inside of one of those Mew forbidden dungeons! My body aches, my mind aches, and I've never been so hungry all my life! That's right. _Hungry_. I feel like I've been eating like a Snorlax, but I'm still hungry all the time. Dangerous things happen when I'm hungry.

"It's been about four and a half weeks since you joined our Base, Team WaterBlaze, so you've had plenty of time to prepare for your first real dungeon expedition," Headmaster Jay began. "As such, it's high time you take a mission for us see what you've learned and if you know how to use it. In all sense of the term, this will be the 'make or break'. This mission will tells us if you are cut out for our standards or not." Headmaster Jay looked at us passively, a hint of ire laced in his eyes.

"Wait…so it's a test?"

"Of sorts," Headmaster Tawny replied with a sly birdish smile. "I would say this mission is akin to the entrance exam that most of the other bases have. It honestly doesn't matter what it is. Just remember, trying your hardest is half the battle."

"Hold up!" I practically shouted. "How come you guys didn't tell us about this test thingy before? And if this is supposed to be our entrance exam, why the Mew didn't we take it when we actually _entered_?"

"Think of it this way," Headmaster Jay crossed his arms as he spoke. "If we actually had an 'entrance exam', then we'd most likely have half as many Pokémon than we do now. For the sake of actually being a successful Rescue Base, we have long since decided to give anyone who wants to join us a month to demonstrate their aptitude and potential, and then, as I said before, show us if they can use what we taught them."

"Very helpful this plan has been to our prosperity. Without it, all of us I am sure know the failure of a Rescue Base that we would have been." Headmaster Rai spoke quietly, kinda like a whisper but kinda loud too. It might've been better to say he spoke softly—or, as soft as you can get with a bird voice like his.

It'd be a lie if I told you my blood ran cold—well, not really since I'm a lizard and lizards are supposed to be cold blooded and all…. Anyway, that's not the point. What is the point though is how nervous I got when Rai's head twitched towards my direction. Yeah, I still have problems with that. The whole 'them hearing my thoughts' thing, I mean.

"Hey…" Water Gun said, looking curiously at the three Headmasters. "That reminds me of something Red Fire and I were wondering about some time ago. You three…you guys weren't on a Rescue Team together before you became headmasters, were you?"

"Actually," Tawny began, smiling brightly at his question, "We were. As was every Headmaster before us."

"No way! Does that mean tha—"

"With all due respect, these are questions that should have be asked and answered already." Jay rolled his eyes slightly. "I'll make sure to speak to Tarsal to find out what exactly he has been teaching you. Meantime, this conversation has obviously digressed. Since Team WaterBlaze is due back from their mission tomorrow afternoon at the _latest_, I think it'd be best to continue with the original purpose of this meeting." Jay said as he got up from his seat at the round table. …Wait. Tomorrow _afternoon_? Sweet Mew! How long are these mission things supposed to take?

"You're right." Tawny nodded to Jay and smiled towards us. "I'll accompany Team WaterBlaze in an escort to the mission room and get them on their way—"

"No need." Jay said curtly. "Mission Handling and Rescue Team procedure are in my department. I'll escort them and send them off." Tawny sighed as she and Rai shared a look.

"Good luck Team Water Blaze!"

"Very well, the two of you should do. This I know." With that we left the other two headmasters at their table and followed Headmaster Jay out the room.

**- scene break -**

As I bet you idiots probably already know or could guess, we went down to the underground tunnel place. The stairs this time. No darkness sliding for me thanks. You wouldn't believe how much I was unsurprised that nothing changed from the last time. Same weird dirt walls, same old locked doors, and same creepy candles.

"I'm sure you both remember this, it's only been a month." Said Headmaster Jay.

"Course we do!" Water Gun jumped up excitedly. He grinned proudly - most likely because of the memory - at Headmaster Jay. "This is where I died!" I nodded at Water Gun. Of we remember; how could I ever forget? This is exactly wher—hold on…

"WHAT?" Both Headmaster Jay and Water Gun turned towards me, their faces twisted in confusion.

"Um, I said that this is where we became a Rescue Team," Said Water Gun. He tilted his head and lifed an eyebrow at me. "Are you okay, Red?" I shook my head a little. Was I hearing things? I swear that I heard…

"Yah, I'm fine," I answered. There was no way I was letting on what I thought I heard Water Gun say. "Why wouldn't I be?" They seemed to take it, either that or just shrug off.

"Well, oddities aside, it's good that you still remember this; although, at the moment, it will be of no use. We're going to the second floor."

"There's a second floor? How are we getting there?" I asked, inwardly hoping that there wasn't _another_ slide.

It was Headmaster Jay's turn to lift an eyebrow. "…It's right in front of you." It's right in front of me? I took a look past the Lucario and lo and behold: A flight of stairs! Yeah, that wasn't one of my best moments. Let's just do our best to forget this ever happened.

As you can probably guess, we stood there and stared at the flight of stairs for a couple of minutes before actually going down them. They weren't remarkable different than the stairs we just went down. Dark, poor lighting, weird bumps on the stairs for you to trip over – no… wait. That was my foot.

Anyway, the stairs opened up to reveal a large candle lit room. With dirt walls and all that. The only thing that made this room different from the last was that there were large bulletin boards on some of the walls. Each bulletin board had scattered pieces of papers and envelopes pinned to it. The papers were hardly organized and some even overlapped and covered others. Another thing that made this room different was that there were _actually_ other Pokémon in it.

"This is where all the rescue teams can find rescue missions and job requests." Headmaster Jay outstretched his arm to the room—as if he were showing off everything inside. "As I'm sure – or at least hope – you already know, there are several types of missions you can receive: Rescue missions; or letters from distressed Pokémon in dungeons – outlaw missions; which entail capturing criminals – escort missions; guiding other Pokémon through a dungeon - and exploration missions; exploring new or relatively unknown dungeons and recording information about it."

"Yeah, we know that stuff already." I smirked and folded my arms. "Headmaster Tawny told us most of it the day we became this stupid rescue team." I could tell that Headmaster Jay wasn't taking that comment well—mostly by the hint of irritation on his normally stoic face and his obvious jaw clinching. I wonder what I do to grate his nerves.

"It's good to know you're not too ignorant," He said calmly. "As you also know, today you are going to pick out a mission and complete it – if everything goes well. Something simplistic in nature will suffice. Go to that board" – He pointed messy bulletin board that was closest to us on the left – "and pick out a one of the letters labeled 'D'."

Not really having anything else to do Water Gun and I went over to the bulletin board and looked over the missions that were pinned on it. The board was…_really_ tall. Water Gun and I wouldn't be able to reach a majority of the requests since they were almost all above our reach. Not that we'd want to though. It looked like the higher the job requests were, the higher the letter was.

"There's a bunch of requests, aren't there?" Water Gun was looking up at all of the letters scattered throughout the board—like I was. "I can't imagine how many Pokémon out there are needing help like this. Which one are we going to pick?"

"'…_Help my dearest love __Nidorino__. Will pay 200 poke and poison band…', '…My poor egg fell into a dungeon. Please help!', '…I though going into a dungeon would be fun but...', '…__Mankey__ has been missing for several days!',_" I rattled off a few as I glanced over them. "You're right. There _is_ a bunch of job requests. But which one are we going to pick?"

Water Gun reached out to one request in front of him. His arm wavered around it a bit like he was a little unsure, but he ended up grabbing it. "How about th—"

"Ooh, ooh! Let me guess; first time picking out a mission?" the new voice startled me and made me jump—and apparently Water Gun too. I looked behind my back to see a large blue dog Pokémon – like headmaster Jay – who looked like she had one of the worst bad mane days. Her yellow main was jagged was pointed at several ends. 'Course, Manectric are like that aren't they? I've seen its pre-evolution, Electrike, a lot, back when I lived at my old home. I had saw some of their folks from a distance, but I had never knew Manectric were so big. She was at least two times my height and literally looking down at me. Maybe it was the tall mane?

"Heh-heh! I bet I'm right aren't I? I remember when I first picked out my first mission. It feels like such a long time ago. It was exciting… and fun, and challenging, and scary—but just a little. Oooh! But what mission will you pick. There's a bunch here you know?"

"We—uh—" Water Gun look unsurely at me.

"Ooh, ooh! How 'bout this one?" She grabbed a mission a little higher off the board than we'd be able to reach with her jaws and pushed it into my hands. I looked closely at it and saw the large label that read 'B'. "I was thinking about doing this one myself two days ago! But—ooh was I _swamped_ with missions! I still am, but that's only because my team tries to never turn down _any_ mission. Ooooh! What's your team name?"

"We're Team—" I wasn't able to answer.

"Wait, wait! Let me guess!" She paused to look at us – if you can consider half a second a pause. "I bet your name gots something to do with justice, huh? I'm right right?"

"Actually—"

"No? Is it somthin' about freedom? Or ambition? Or—I know! Exploring! You guys want to do a bunch of exploring don't you? Personally my team hasn't done too many exploring teams. Just maybe three. Or four? I don't remember." Another half-a-second thoughtful pause – or was it half a half a second? "Ooooh! I haven't told you my team's name yet, have I? Well, the team ain't really exactly mine. It's our leaders. But we're Team Speedsters! We get everything done fast 'cause there's a bunch more of everything we've gotta do!"

Water Gun and I shared another hesitant glance. Who was this Pokémon? Fortunately, we were saved by Headmaster Jay, who quickly stepped between us and the female Manectric. "If you're done chatting, you both have a mission to go to—and a time limit to meet. Go back up the stairs and talk to Delphia at the front desk. She will check you out, and then you can go on your mission." Grabbing the job request from Water Gun's hands, Headmaster jay turned to the Manectric. "—and I will talk to you about giving a new team a mission from the B-ranked row!"

Guessing that he was finished with us, Water Gun and I left the bulletin board filled room. On our way out, we saw all the other Pokémon amusingly watching the spectacle of Headmaster Jay berating the Manectric.

You know, I think that actually settles it: All the Pokémon in this place are _crazy_.

**- scene break -**

"Hey Delly," I said as Water Gun and I came out the hole in the ground. Delphia looked at us uninterestedly. "Big blue told us that you'd check us out for this mission." I held up the job request in my hand. I mean, she probably had to do something with it.

She irritatedly flicked one of her ears and took the request. "You know, he'd freak if he found out you called him that."

"It's not like he'll find out."

"Don't be too sure." After a loud 'ding' from something behind the desk, she handed me back the job request. In a quieter voice I could barely hear she muttered, "Stupid prodigies." She laid her head back down on the desk and… well, I guess she went to sleep.

Water Gun and I stood there for a while. In silence. It took a little probing [read: lots of random jesters and mouthing words], but he finally asked the question we were wondering. "So…uh, Delphia…"

"You guys are _still_ here?" She droned. She lifted her head a bit from her sleeping position to look at us.

"Well, yeah. See, we really don't know what to do next…"

"Your mission is in the Lurid Desert dungeon. Just pull out your emblem, press the upper left button, and say 'Lurid Desert'. It teleports you right there."

"Wha? Bu—"

"Thanks," I said, cutting Water Gun off. That seemed pretty simple. I took our green and white emblem out of the treasure bag I had over my shoulder, like she said, and pressed the smooth, shiny button on the top left.

"Wait! Red Fire! Tha—"

"Hold on Water Gun, I think the egg thing saying something!" Yeah, you heard me. The emblem was actually _speaking_. Unfortunately, I could only catch 'destination name'. Deciding to just follow through the steps Delly gave us, I said the name of the dungeon that our mission was at. "Lurid Desert'.

I paused for a second, but nothing was happening. "Is this some kind of jok—" As soon as I spoke, Water Gun, me, and the egg thingy lit up in bright, shining light. To say the least, it was really freaky. I suddenly felt light too. Not light as in bright light but light as in not heavy light. But then, in a split second, everything was over.

Well, not everything. Our surroundings had completely changed. How weird was that? Well, Delly did say the egg thing would teleport us.

"RED FIRE!"

"Jeez, what?" I looked at Water Gun with a lifted brow. What was his deal? We're at our first mission as a rescue team, I'd kinda think he'd be happy, not yelling at me.

"It was the wrong one!"

"What was the wrong one?"

"The job request! I was just trying to tell you that I just realized that Headmaster Jay took the request I picked up instead of the one that Manetric gave you! We have the wrong mission!" Wait, what?

I pulled out the job request that Delly had given back to me. On it was a big, fat, bold 'B' that made my legs tremble like the dickens.

"Fuck."


	19. Break or Bust 2

_Arc II: We're IT!_

_Chapter 16~ Break or Bust 2_

**Lurid Desert BF6**

We could see it. It was in complete clear view through the passageway that we were outside of. It wasn't too far off—just a little bit away, but not too much. It was small, and in a random place in the room, like always.

Of course, the stairs leading to the next floor wasn't the only thing that was in clear view. Wrapped around our guarantee of passage was what could probably be mistaken as a inconvenient line of rocks that blended really well into its environment. But, Water Gun and I fell for that trick already, and we weren't going to fall for it again. Well, technically I'd be a sixth time, but nobody cares about technicalities.

It was a freaking Onix. No, no—let me rephrase that. It was _another_ freaking Onix. There were a bunch of them in this stupid dungeon. Fortunately, we've been able to avoid most of them, like with pretty much every other Pokemon in this place, but this one was literally _wrapped_ around the stairs. A closer look told me that not only was it wrapped around them, but it was sleeping too. I mean, seriously, what the heck? Did it randomly decide to snuggle with a hole in the ground? Freaking dungeon Pokemon make no sense.

A quick glance at Water Gun, who was on the opposite side of the passageway, told me he saw exactly what I did: that there was no way to get to the stairs and avoid the Onix at the same time.

Our tactic here has mostly been staying quiet and tip-toe-like to avoid getting pummeled by the crazy strong—and not to mention typically crazy huge—Pokemon around. We've been able to develop signs and looks to communicate. It wasn't anything big really, in fact I remember Tarsal telling us that it was pretty normal, and good, for a team to develop some kind of signs.

Water Gun and I shared another glance and nodded. In a split second, we both set off running as fast as we could toward the sleeping Onix, our feet against the ground was the only sound echoing in the passageway. We should have been more stealthy, since it seemed like the sound of our running woke up the Onix.

The Onix reared up, its head close to touching the ceiling full of stalagmites, and it roared. It wasn't as loud as it could have been, you could tell, but it was pretty darn loud. The ground shook lightly and I almost lost my balance; which would have been bad because I was in a pretty elegant fighting stance. A quick bugged-eyed look at Water Gun and we both knew which plan we were going for—we did it a couple times already.

The Onix, I guess it was antsy to get rid of us—which I can relate to, I mean we _did_ totally interrupt its sleep—went at both of us. He slowly gained speed and I could see a slight hint of white surround him. Wait, was he going with a Takedown attack? While it would have probably seemed smart to do in blind rage, it was actually pretty stupid. Here we are, two small Pokemon and he's going to try a Takedown while he's still a good distance a way from us? Geez, a Sloth would be able to move out the way before he hits. Of course, we weren't doing that.

Oh no. Instead of dodging, both of us continued to run forwards towards him, maybe a little faster than before. A little bit before the point where he'd probably collide with us, Water Gun unleashed the strongest Water Gun he could, and I jumped into the air. I could see it all happening underneath me during my descent. Water Gun hit the Onix full on with the blast of water, and was probably a critical hit. The Takedown attack he was attempting seemed to have been nullified by it too. But, it didn't look like The Onix took that much damage. He mostly look enraged. Which was kinda bad, considering that this was a dungeon Pokemon. It was kinda amusing to watch though.

I landed from my jump directly on top of the Onix's head. It was in good time too, because the Onix reared up again in rage. Flinging my hand for something to hold, I grasped the horn on it's head for my dear life as it deafening roar which was a whole bunch louder before. Well, I'm pretty sure it was louder at least. I mean, I was on top of its head and all.

Before it came back down to enact revenge on Water Gun, I jumped as hard as I could off of it's head to bring myself close to the ceiling.

"Alright...I've only got one shot at this," I said to myself. It was the first words I said for awhile in this dungeon and, in any other time, I would probably reflect on how unfamiliar my voice sounded...but I was kinda in a rush.

I looked around to find the largest stalactite by me and tried to face its direction in mid-air. It was to the left of me, fortunately, so it wasn't that hard. I reared back one of my arms and pumped a ton of power into it. I kinda had to squint my eyes because of the shiny metallic gleam my claws took. But anyway, I gave the spiky rock the best Metal Claw I've done in a while. It wasn't enough to completely break it off, but it did crack it pretty bad. That was fine though. It was exactly what we wanted.

After I cracked the stalactite I began my descent back to the ground, which was a pretty long distance away from me. Water Gun seemed to be in the middle of a pickle and I could catch the Onix rearing back for what looked like was going to be a devastating Tail Whip. I was half way to the ground by the time the Tail Whip struck home and sent Water Gun flying into a wall. I saw him withdrawing most of his body into his shell before he hit, but it still made me furious at the Onix.

So you know what I did?

I freaking reared back myself. In its blind anger, the Onix must of forgotten about me being up here, so I'm going to give it a rough reminder. I cocked back my fist and it boiled with a red aura. As I collided into the Onix, I brought it down as hard as I could. There was a sickening crunch that resounded off the walls. Heh, it didn't know what hit him. My Brick Break seemed to leave a permanent crack on the horn of its head though. Stupid Onix got what was coming to him. No one bashes one of my friends. Well...I can't really say 'one of my friends' since Water Gun's pretty much the only friend I've got. But still, you get the idea.

Brick Break's a move that I'm glad Dirge, the Medicham, let me put under my arsenal. Yeah, he's the one who taught me the move, being a fighting type and all. You wouldn't believe the amount of times we've had to use it to get rid of a couple of inconveniently place rocks. Dirge definitely knew what he was doing.

So, as it turns out, the Onix didn't completely like the fact that I put a giant crack at the top of his cranium. Either that or his roar of anger was actually a wail of pain. Actually, I like that idea. Yeah, let's go with that one. 'The Onix wailed in pain as it convulsed on the ground and shriveled up in a ball as it de-evolved into the pathetic Weedle it was'.

But seriously, the Onix really did roar out again; and it seemed to finally notice that there was a red lizard on its head. I held on tightly to the horn which I previously cracked as it went wild. And when I say wild I mean it. It was whipping its whole body in every way imaginable just to try to fling me off. He was even slamming his body onto the ground! It was around the time he started to use Dragon Breath to try to get rid of me that I got the wise idea to gradually get off of the Onix by going onto his back and lowering myself onto each of the gigantic stones that made his body.

It was around the time that I made it half way down, by Mew I'm surprised I made it that far, that the Onix noticed me on it's lower body.

It's times like these when I wonder, 'when an Onix sees its body, what does it think?'. Haven't you ever wondered that? I mean, come on their bodies are freaking rocks for Mew's sake! When I look at my hand, I think, 'Ahh, yes. This red thing poking out of my body is part of me.' or 'Man, these are some sick claws...'. I know I cannot be the only one out there who wonders what an Onix would do when it sees it's body—or if it would do anything at all. I mean, would it be like, 'Whoa, that's a pretty nice row of boulders there. Either nature's pretty organized or some guy's got OCD!' or maybe 'Dammit, I can't get my tail to move! Oh wait, that's just a normal rock...'. Just think of how different life would be.

Well, it was these particular thoughts that were going through my mind when the Onix attacked me, and in affect his whole body, with a Crunch attack. I jumped off onto the ground in time of course, but I'm sure you can imagine the Onix looked hilarious biting its own tail like that. It looked pretty painful too though. Then again, giving damage to yourself is pretty much always painful.

The Onix recovered quickly; and the rumbling by one of the rooms walls told me that Water Gun was finally making use of his stupid ass. A quick glance at the ceiling told me that the stalactite was on its way to completely cracking off. All of the extremely loud roaring and wall-crashing was slowly helping. Of course, it's help more if it was doing it faster.

I grit my teeth as I narrowly dodged a sloppy attack from the Onix's tail. I need to stop getting so caught up in my head.

The Onix drilled his tail into the ground and quickly flung it out causing a ton of medium sized rocks to fly at me. Rock Throw. I jumped to the side and, once again, barely managed to get out of the way of the attack. Water Gun, who finally managed to get out of his hole in the wall, ran up to the Onix and fired another one of his Water Gun attacks. He must of been getting tired, cause it was barely even a hit. Only two seconds after Water Gun attacked, the Onix moved out of the way and was only slightly splashed by the water.

The Onix reared up into the air again, the stupid rock beast had a mixed expression of cockiness and anger as it opened its gigantic rocky jaw. I felt my knees chill when I saw a large ball of blue flame form between it's jaws. We had literally no time to move as the Onix spit out a Dragonflame attack big enough to cover both me and Water Gun. I felt a giant pit drop in my stomach as the attack came flying at us, there was no way to dodge it.

Oh Mew, did it _burn_! The attack was over in a flash but I felt completely awful afterward. It was the first major damage I've taken in awhile, so I knew I'd be okay, but glancing at Water Gun—who's type advantage made him become the main attacker since we've been in this stupid dungeon—I saw he was straining to even stand. Damnit. We've got to end this, f_ast_. Otherwise we'll be completely screwed. At the corner of my eye, I saw Water Gun looking at me as I ran off towards the Onix, who was too busy relishing his attack to notice me coming at him from his side.

While being here in the dungeon, we've gotten to know Onix bodies pretty well. We knew which part of their body hurt the most when they smashed against us, and which part of their body could fling at us the fastest in a Fail attack. As Tarsal always said, pain is education. You're probably wondering where I'm going to go with this crap. Well, I've learned something. It's pretty interesting, really. Onix have exactly two main weak points and they're both exactly on the opposite places on their bodies. Their horn, and their tail.

So, there I was, right in front of the smallest part of the Onix's body—which was resting helplessly on the ground—and you know what I do?

I cock back my fist, and give that tiny rock the hardest full on Brick Break I've ever pulled off. The loud 'CRACK' resounded around me and I could tell just by the sound of it that it was a critical hit. Perhaps it was too hard 'cause I saw a good portion of the rock flying away.

The Onix was pissed beyond words—well, either that or it was filled with uncontrollable blind pain. It threw its head towards me and let out a gigantic roar. And I don't mean one of those 'how dare you wake me' roars that it's been throwing around. I mean an actual legit 'Roar' attack. It was so strong that it threw me back until I hit the wall behind me, which was pretty impressive cause the wall was a pretty long ways away.

I was fine with it though. It was exactly what I wanted. I looked up towards the stalactite that I cracked earlier and grinned. That roar was probably strong enough to reach and vibrate the ceiling. Sure enough, that giant spike was finally breaking off the last strings of its base—and the Onix was right on its landing pad.

The stalactite fell sliently towards the Onix, who was completely oblivious to his incoming doom. Something glinted inside of the falling rock and it caught my eye. Heh, looks like there's some metal inside of it too. The more damage the better. It was so perfect I could cry.

The moment it crashed into the Onix was a moment any Pokemon would salute to. The relief that the battle was finally over was wonderful. "Take that you Weedle wannabe!" Yeah, I knew the thing was probably dead and couldn't hear me, but I needed to get that off my chest. The Onix was crumbled on the ground underneath a pile of rocks and that piece of metal I saw. It should be disappearing soon like the defeated Pokemon here normally do.

"I don't know about you, but I'm glad that's over." I walked back to Water Gun, who was sprawled out on the ground, taking a breather. We bumped fists and I sat down next to him.

"Yeah." He was still breathing hard, so he took a deep pause in between words. "Sorry I wasn't much help...I was really getting worn out there, Red. I don't know If I can continue any longer with this..."

"Meh, don't worry about it! I've still got enough energy to go at it, if anymore Onx try to stop us, they'd better watch out for my killer Brick Break! Next time I'll do a ton more than crack a horn!"

"I'm sure." He grinned tiredly at me. Suddenly the pile of rocks in front of us began rumbling. It continued to shake until the Onix was completely uncovered by the broken pieces of the stalactite. I realized then, that it wasn't the pile of rocks that was causing the shaking, but the Onix.

"What the—!" I heard Water Gun shout behind me.

I don't know what was causing the Onix to shake, but I didn't like it. I looked at Water Gun, and he gave me a confused expressing back. Then, the Onix started glowing. I realized what was happening to late to stop it, which I'm pretty sure I couldn't even if I did have the time. The Onix was evolving. The glowing only lasted for a few seconds and then subsided. The Onix's new from stood there, and looked at us menacingly with its gigantic head—and I mean gigantic. If the Onix had a big head before, then this thing's head was _huge_. Also, instead of it's earthy grey, it was a sharp sliver, like the piece of metal I saw in the falling stalactite.

I have no Idea what caused the damn thing's evolution, but there was no way I was letting it have anything remotely close to live. I'm taking the thing down. I seemed like the evolved Onix had the same idea, as it prepared an attack that caused the whole room to shake. I knew what it was right off the bat, after all, I pretty much almost died by it once before by that Sandshrew in our first dungeon. Rock Tomb.

"Red Fire, wait!" Before I could go running off in a mad attack again, Water Gun reached out and grabbed my wrist.

"Water Gun, it's using Rock Tomb! Waiting is dying!"

"I know, I know! But look! See how its all shiny and metal-ish?"

"Are you serious right now? Really? We are about to die if we don't attack and all you can do is talk about how _shiny_ it is?" Isn't that my part, anyway?

"No! It's probably a steel-type!" He said excitedly. "That mean's—"

"I already gotcha. Let's do our worst." Back in Ivy Town, Tarsal ran us down with all of the different Pokemon Types and their weaknesses. And when I say 'ran us down' I mean he drilled us. Constantly. It was all about knowing your enemy and stuff. Anyway, steel-types are pretty unfortunate when they run into us. Having a team with a Charmander and a Squirtle, both of our types are super effective against them. Considering how this evolved Onix is already super injured, taking him down again will be a piece of cake. And I like cake.

Water Gun and I ran up to the Onix evolution together and blasted our strongest fire and water type attacks at it. Which were Ember and WaterGun. The attacks hit just in time, as pieces of rocks were already falling from the ceiling and up-heaving from the ground. I could see the evolved Onix wincing at the strain of pain.

There was a giant 'thud' as the thing fainted and fell on the ground. The Rock Tomb attack stopped and all the rocks that were up-heaving crashed back into the ground. We did. We were just in time.

I grinned at Water Gun, who was smirking broadly at me. I gave him a high five and we headed over to the stairs. There was no way we were waiting around for anymore Pokemon to come up and evolve while attacking us again.

Water Gun stumbled while walking and I'm pretty sure if I wasn't there to catch him he would've fallen straight out on the ground. It was when I was helping him up and let him wrap his arm across my neck in support that I realized just how fatigued Water Gun was. Damn idiot.

We wordlessly walked up the stairs to the next floor of this stupid dungeon. According to the mission letter, only twenty three more floors of this crap until we reached the Rescue Floor. You know, I actually didn't care whether or not we did make it through all of this. I'm sure it sounds strange—but its true. No, I don't have some kind of death wish or anything. I just know whatever happens to Water Gun and I, we'll be able tackle it together. Our bond of friendship has really strengthened, and I guess I take comfort that even if we do go down, nothing will be able to break it. For my first best friend, Water Gun is pretty great.

Crap. I'm getting all sentimental again, aren't I?

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**When does one give up on something they do? That's a question that I've thunk about for a pretty good while. Really, It didn't seem like there was anytime when it seemed entirely appropriate. Especially in the case of WaterBlaze. But then I kinda realized something: I had started WaterBlaze because it was fun. And you know what? **_**It isn't fun anymore.**_

**I'm really sorry to all of you. I mean, I started this fic, and took years just to get to—what chapter is this? 19? Not only that, but I had said not too long ago that I was still continuing WaterBlaze despite the long hiatus. I wonder how many people I've disappointed in stopping the story. **

**But, above all I'm sorry for WaterBlaze. It might sound weird, but I am. I had planned so much for this story, that I can't even put it all here. WaterBlaze was going to get four more members, there was going to be a civil war, Red Fire was going to come close to death so many freaking times—and was actually going to die for real and still live. We were going to go in depth in Red Fire's background and other main character backgrounds, and there was going to be TONS of character development. There was going to be prophecies, legionaries, and plot twists; and I outlined it all and everything (well, most of it). WaterBlaze was literally going to be epic. **

**And I think that's where I went wrong. I basically set myself up for failure buy starting something so big and so long that it would eventually not be fun anymore. A writer **_**enjoys**_** doing their work, which is why they write in the first place. But somehow along the line, I stopped **_**enjoying **_**it. Perhaps I'm intimidated by the prospect of tackling something so big as WaterBlaze's future.**

**You know, I cannot cringe harder with the way I ended this chapter (and by affect the whole story)? The last paragraph—discounting the last sentence—doesn't do WaterBlaze's once possible future any justice. But I'm forcing myself to leave it that way—which is extremely open ended—because I know if I did do anything, I'd end up killing off Red Fire and Water Gun (which was the ending I was initially going to write).**

**I'm not taking WaterBlaze down, though. I'm actually leaving it up here and marking it as complete; mostly as a lesson for me to remember. Also, for those of you following me, I think I'm only going to write one-shots for a while—discounting one fic I'm writing now. I want to refine my skills as a writer, and 20,000 worded one chapter stories seem like the way to do it.**

**Once again, I'm sorry reader.**

**~Claw/Odd**


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